increase font size
The quality of colostrum calves receive from their dams in their first 24 hours is influenced by the cow’s nutrition.
The lead up to another calving period means the next few weeks offer an opportunity to meet the nutritional demands of your cows.
ensures optimum levels of productivity for the cow during the coming lactation and early nutrition for the calf during the final weeks of gestation and the first weeks of life outside the womb.
Supporting Your Cows' Productivity
Energy demands for cows are at an all-time high as they transition from pregnancy to lactation. A lack of vital nutrients, vitamins, and minerals at this time can severely affect health and lactation performance throughout the season. What’s often forgotten is that this period also impacts the future health and performance of the calf.
We all know that wellfed cows hold condition better through lactation. However, it is seldom recognised the role that successful transitioning plays in this. A successful transition will ensure the cow comes into lactation with higher rumen performance, in effect lowering the risk of developing metabolic diseases such as milk fever and ketosis. A successfully transitioned cow is also more likely to produce a healthier calf.
It is essential that a cow’s digestive system is transitioned to a level where she can digest as much good quality feed as possible during this time to maintain condition, produce milk, and drive the hormones required over the coming months to become pregnant again.
Transition and early lactation require a diet high in calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, as well as adequate trace element levels. Rumen buffers can also be very useful in stabilising rumen pH over this time, as these allow higher rumen performance without risking sub-acute acidosis, a common problem in early lactation.
Effective supplementation can be determined by feed and soil tests and research on nutrient requirement levels at different levels of production.Setting Your Calves Up For Life
Our goal with calf nutrition is to develop the rumen so it can absorb and convert nutrients from eating grass and feed once weaned. Calves receiving the correct balance of vitamins and minerals early will achieve growth targets quickly, setting them up for good health later in life.
The quality of colostrum calves receive from their dams in their first 24 hours is influenced by the cow’s nutrition. High quality colostrum is vital as this provides passive immunity to help calves fight off infections for the first months of life as their immune systems develop.
When it comes to hard feeding, high quality feeds and supplements need to be formulated especially for calf growth and health. These should contain trace minerals, vitamins, and key amino acids.
By giving calves a nutritionally balanced diet in the first weeks of their life, you’re setting them up to achieve all milestones as they mature, and much higher production potential when they join the herd.
Cow and calf health are inextricably linked, as both rely on optimum nutrition.
A well laid nutritional plan is the most effective way of ensuring superior performance at every stage of your animal’s life.
Article supplied by Agvance
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is sometimes viewed as a dairy industry issue, but the reality is that the disease can have serious consequences for beef breeding herds as well.
Animal health company Bovonic is gearing up for its next stage of growth after increasing New Zealand sales of QuadSense by more than 50% in the last 12 months, including a record quarter for the business this year.
With lambing underway in many regions, Beef + Lamb New Zealand is encouraging farmers to put together a wellequipped lambing kit to help minimise lamb losses, particularly in bad weather.
Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) remains one of the most significant infectious diseases affecting New Zealand dairy herds.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) and Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network are calling for investment in a proposed new training pathway for rural GPs, warning that many rural practices are struggling to recruit while a large share of the existing workforce nears retirement.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Synlait has swung to second-half profit as operations stabilise, but the dairy processor still posted a $75.4m annual loss.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
