Balancing Trade-Offs in Milk Production by Making Use of Animal Individual Energy Balancing

Traditionally, the energy supply of dairy cows is based on the average performance of the herd. Because this contradicts the great variation in requirements between individual animals, the objective of the present study was to quantify both the extent and consequences of variation in the relevant sub-variables used to calculate the energy balance (EB) on an individual animal basis. Total energy supply (TES) and requirements (TER) of 28 multiparous German Holstein dairy cows fed TMR with 7.0 MJ NEL were studied between the 2nd and 15th week after calving. TES, mainly influenced by DMI, increased from 100.1 (week 2) to 152.1 MJ NEL/d (week 15; p < 0.01). Weekly coefficients of variation (CV) ranged between 0.10 and 0.16 and were similar to the CV of DMI (0.09 to 0.17). TER, as the sum of energy requirement for maintenance (body weight) and production (milk yield), decreased from 174.8 (week 2) to 164.5 MJ NEL/d (week 15; p < 0.01) and CV varied between 0.16 (week 2) and 0.07 (week 11). EB increased from −74.8 (week 2) to −12.4 MJ NEL/d (week 15; p < 0.01) and CV varied from 0.32 (week 3) to 1.01 (week 10). The results indicate that calculating EB on an individual animal basis is a prerequisite to identify animals with an increased risk of failing to cope with their energy situation, which cause failure costs that drain the profit of affected cows.