Looking back at 2025 reminds me of the saying, “This is why we can’t have nice things.” Conjure up an image of a giant doodle of some sort, covered with mud sitting on a new white couch. Or a toddler holding an empty ice cream cone staring at a scoop of chocolate ice cream dropped on a light-colored rug. Our industry’s skill in turning Holsteins into Jerseys the past 18 months is another example. Just because we could, doesn’t mean we should.
Butterfat blues
In recent years, the nutritionist’s best friend may be the geneticist. It is fair to say that the surprising butterfat results seen in 2025 were a result of some unknown combination of nutrition and genetics. Even so, nutritionists have never felt so capable as we have with the ability to move butterfat to previously unbelievable levels. Sharing credit is always easier than trying to divide and assign blame. But to what end did we accomplish this? Yes, producer milk checks were bolstered, but now only one year later those same lauded fat levels are receiving penalties on the milk check. No, this isn’t widespread, but knowledge of it has put a chill on feeding techniques that helped create these crazy fat results. I think the entire industry from the feed suppliers of palm fat and rumen-available methionine to the cheese plant might have been better off if we would not have gone a little too crazy with this process. Remember, cows can produce nice levels of butterfat simply due to the way their rumen and mammary systems work together every day.
Evidenced by frustrating allocations for what I will call rumen-available methionine and shortages of high palmitic acid fat products; nutritionists and their clients implemented these nutritional strategies at an amazing clip in the last 18 months or so.
First, what is rumen-available methionine? There are numerous products and approaches to get methionine into the rumen to make it available to rumen microbes to help them digest more fiber and create more building blocks for milkfat. This methionine is not to be confused with rumen-protected methionine that is held intact as it passes through the rumen, making it available for milk support via absorption in the small intestine to support milk protein levels.
The science of the palmitic acid could also stand a quick reminder of how it works. I have jokingly said in the past that we might as well just ship the palmitic acid (C 16:0) straight to the milk plant instead of the dairy. This is an over-simplification but does make the point that the fat in palmitic acid does, in a way, simply go from the bunk, through the cow, and into the milk. Palmitic acid does support metabolic functions like other fatty acids, but the reason we feed it to cows is that it moves from the ration to the milk tank. Other types of fat do this, too, but none as responsively or completely as a high palmitic acid product. Because of this, previously unheard- of level of palmitic acid products were fed to cows in 2025. The result is a full-on example of supply and demand price dynamics, product allocations, and the emergence of previously unknown companies to swooping in and filling gaps in the supply chain. I wonder if any quality control measures were ignored to simply keep the pipeline full to help avoid outages.
Milkfat values in 2026 have crashed. Perhaps our overuse of this technique was a portion of the cause. While remembering all of that from 2025, I am also reminded that the dairy cow has a pretty good toolbox to create milkfat without either of these nutritional interventions, little to no extra cost, no allocations, tariffs, and no new business cards from employees from new fat product companies.
Defining de novo
What is a de novo fatty acid? First, what even does de novo mean? De novo is a Latin phrase best described as something “made from scratch.” When feeding palmitic acid, these fat molecules travel intact from the diet to the milk. De novo fatty acids, on the other hand, are built from parts and pieces of molecules that were in the diet but in a different form. These are the fats that make ruminants special. It is their superpower at work. Carbohydrates and fats are made primarily of carbons as is milkfat. A de novo fatty acid in milk is comprised of carbons that were in forages and other feeds in the ration. They are separated by the microbes in the rumen, absorbed by the cows as volatile fatty acids, and then combined by the cow to create milkfat.
Think back to 2025 and picture two dairies with two different nutritional strategies for milkfat production. Dairy A was feeding a moderate or even low-end forage diet, pushing for milk and feeding a pound or more of a high palmitic acid branded fat product. The cows responded well and yielded 102 pounds of energy-corrected milk (ECM) that came from 90 pounds of flow with a 4.25 butterfat percentage. Feed cost concerns this dairy owner, but the results are good and with high milk prices, keeps the pedal down.
Dairy B either had more forage available or perhaps their style was to feed as much forage as possible and still have good milk production. They may be considered a little old-fashioned and likely wondered during 2025 if they were leaving money on the table. Dairy B had only 95 pounds of ECM that came from 81 pounds of flow and a higher fat test of 4.60%. But, since their forage is grown on their own land and represents the lowest cost part of the ration, their feed cost was significantly lower per pound of DM than Dairy A. To make the difference even bigger in the total economic comparison, the higher forage feeding resulted in more moderate intakes, making actual feed cost per cow even lower. The higher forage rations resulted in healthier cows and lower involuntary culling. {aca_publi_article2}
In 2025, perhaps Dairy A was more profitable. Here in 2026, I bet the profitability edge would go to Dairy B. In this example comparison, Dairy B is leveraging the natural ability of a dairy cow to convert fiber in the ration to fat in the milk. Depending on the value of the milk and the cost of the feed, the best approach can be found.
The best example to illustrate this difference might be to look at the bookends. The lowest-cost carbon in a ration might be found in the fiber in wheat straw. The most expensive carbon might be in a high palmitic product. When considering the return on investment of these two carbon cost points, high or low butterfat prices will determine what blend of the two makes the most money. Don’t forget, the cows might not care if the fiber for de novo fatty acids come from home-grown forages or purchased fibrous byproducts like soybean hulls or beet pulp. If the rumen is kept healthy and productive by feeding the correct length of forages in a well-balanced diet, the source of the carbons for de novo fatty acids can come from all types of fiber. This flexibility allows for profitable milk production with a plethora of different diets and across various geographic regions with high or low forage availability. That’s good news for dairy consumers all around the globe.
