The History of Newton®: Making Dairy Cow Nutrition Smarter

By John Metcalf (Consulting Scientist) and Anne-Marie Raiche, Agr. (Technical Services Director East Region, Canada) 

When a cow is expected to produce a certain amount of milk, it follows that she requires a particular level of nutrition to meet her production requirement. 

That thinking led to the development of Least Cost Formulation (LCF) for rations in the 1970’s. This was a system that an approach to balance energy, protein, minerals and vitamins using the most affordable mix of ingredients. As computing power grew, nutritionists could include more ingredients, improving the precision of diets and results for farmers. 

At the same time, research was being conducted on how cows digest their feed, so that this knowledge could be used to create better rations 

Main frame computers increased the ability of nutritionists to make use of these new parameters, resulting in the development of PerfoLact (PerfoLait) around 1980, in which many more ingredients could be combined using the LCF approach. At this time, the idea of combining so many nutrients for dairy cows was seen as radical, but our producers saw results on farms 

In the 1990’s, research expanded our understanding of how the rumen—the cow’s first stomach—digests feed. Newton® introduced the idea of rumen available carbohydrates instead of focusing only on starch or sugar, helping farmers better “feed the bugs” in the rumen that in turn, feed the cow. 

Over the years, Newton® the model added new tools: 

• 2004: The model introduced two unique parameters (Potential Digestibility and Insoluble Fibre), which improved estimates of forage degradability on individual farms, increasing focus on customer profitability 

• 2006: A major upgrade with the launch of Newton®, including the Dynamic Energy system as well as integrating the benefits of various rumen modifiers into the formulation itself, so that the overall price of rations could be reduced for a target level of milk production. This was considered a better approach than including an additive on top of a balanced diet and expecting to see an increase in milk production 

• 2016: A unique method for ration formulation in which NIR (Near-Infrared Spectroscopy) analysis could be used to determine rumen degradability on every forage. This allows the impact of harvesting and ensiling to be incorporated into the ration formulation, giving the most accurate evaluation of the nutrients available to the bugs and the cow. Normally, analysing one forage for degradability is costly and very slow, but utilising NIR allows every forage to be correctly evaluated, and better formulations formulated 

The latest version of Newton aligns nutrient requirements with the new "Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle" (NASEM 2021) which replaced NRC (2001). Also, an updated rumen microbial model has been incorporated to improve estimates of the microbial protein yield in the rumen. 

Today, after more than 55 years of innovation, Newton has evolved to its current state, providing cost effective rations to producers by correctly evaluating on - farm ingredients and demonstrating the value of rumen modifier feed additives. Nutrition is only part of profitable dairy farming, with the role of the Trouw Nutrition Dairy Nutrition Advisor (DNA) having a major impact in identifying opportunities to increase welfare and profitability. When nutrition can make a difference, Newton is a tool to simplify the complex digestive process of the dairy cow, allowing dairy producers to make the most of their resources.