Food… The Most Important Vitamin of Them All.
When you are feeding cows there are three basic rules of nutrition: FILL THEM UP, FILL THEM UP & FILL THEM UP!
It is only after they are full that you need to think about balancing them for energy, fibre and protein. Even if it is only with last years’ hay, dead grass or straw make sure the cow is always full. An average sized cow can eat 12kg dry matter per day of a very fibrous diet, and 20 kg dry matter per day of a high quality diet. A target of 15-16 kg per day is achievable on a typical farm in summer.
Imagine that you have filled the rumen with 10 kg DM/day of really good cow food (silage, grain or crops) and 5 kg DM of fresh air. What would then happen is that the really good food wouldn’t ferment properly (most likely turning too acid) and would risk making the cow sick with scours. These scours would likely waste good proportion of that diet offered and could reduce the digestibility of the feed that doesn’t pass through. Also the first 6-7 kg DM of this diet would end up in maintenance (just keep-ing the cow alive). Because of maintenance costs there would only be 3-4 kg DM of food left over for milk and the cow would produce no more than 8-12 litres of milk per day… Not a good result.
What would happen if you added an extra 5 kg DM of straw or dead grass to the diet? Firstly the cow would be full and feel content so she wouldn’t walk around all day looking for food. Secondly if the other part of the diet was pretty good it would balance things out nutritionally and solve scours or acidosis problems and improve the digestibility of the total diet. Finally the ex-tra 5 kg DM of poor quality feed would contribute towards the cows’ maintenance cost so that instead of 6-7 kg DM of good food going towards keeping her alive we might cut that back to 1 or 2 kg DM of good food. This would leave about 8 kg DM of decent tucker available for milk instead of 3-4 kg DM and could produce anywhere upto 10L more.
If you are aiming at a result better than the high teens (20L or above) that’s when you need to think about the balance between energy, protein and fibre a lot more deeply – but you still have to fill the cow up.
During summer the two most limiting nutrients are protein (not enough) and fibre (too much). That is why Reid’s released our range of ultra-high protein pellets and crushed grain mixes. As long as you fill them up with forage we can balance their needs in the dairy.
If you’d like to increase your livestock farming gains and get professional feeding advice. Call 1300 REID FEED or enquire here >
