Feeding For Dairy cattle The possibility of success

Feeding For Dairy cattle

• The possibility of success in cattle farming business depends on the proper feed management system. • Basically cattle feed management means providing quality feed for good health, proper growth and better production (in different stages of life and in different seasons). • For a healthy and productive cow, feed rations(recipe) should have a balance of quantity, quality, amounts of concentrates, protein, mineral and vitamins. • Fodder/roughages are bulky feeds that are rich in energy and proteins.

Feeding Ration: • Ration is meant a sufficient quantity of food to support properly an animal for one day. • To get material for muscle, for blood, for milk, and for normal metabolism, the animal needs, in the first place, is protein. • To keep warm and fat, the animal must, in the second place, is carbohydrates and fats. • These foods must be mixed in right proportions.

Feeding Standards The requirement of an animal (Dairy cows): • For maintaining the body • To supply material for milk • For development of fetus • For growth in case of animal is immature • To perform work in grazing and exercise To achieve this the following classes of food material are required: • Proteins, carbohydrates and fat • Minerals and vitamins.

• Carbohydrates Primary sources: barley, corn, oats, wheat, molasses, beet pulp, and soyhulls. • Protein Primary sources: canola meal, distillers grains, soybean meal, and corn gluten meal. • Fat Primary sources: vegetable oil, tallow, and protected fatty acids. • Minerals and Vitamins Primary sources: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Sodium, Chloride, Potassium, Sulfur, Iron, Zinc, Manganese, Copper, Cobalt, Iodine, Selenium, Vitamin A, D, E and some B-vitamins too. • They are essential for the health and productivity of the cows. • The protein, fat, minerals, vitamins and feed additives are mixed together at a feed mill and brought to the dairy farm to be fed to the dairy cows. • By products such as potato waste, fruit and vegetable waste, etc. What processors call waste is actually a by-product for the dairy feed industry.

Digestibility The amount of substances given that can be digested from any feedstuff by the animal. The difference between the amount consumed and the amount voided is called digestible.

• Dairy farmers and herd nutritionists aim for 5060% of the diet as forage and rest as concentrates • There are two groups of forages: wet and dry. • Wet forage is silage, (fermented forage). Commonly, silage on a dairy farm would consist of barley, corn or alfalfa. • Dry forages are pasture (fresh forage) or high quality alfalfa hay, alfalfa-grass mix hay, grass hay or straw. • The other half of the diet is called the concentrate. The concentrate is comprised of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and minerals and vitamins.

• A simple way of classifying feeds is to group them as roughages, concentrates and mineral supplements. • Roughages are coarse, indigestible ingredients that provide bulk to the diet and promote normal bowel functions. • In the beef cattle diet, common roughages include hay, silage and grass. (Silage is a crop that has been preserved in a moist, succulent condition by partial fermentation in a tight container (silo) above or below ground. The majority of the food cattle comes from this type of feedstuffs). • Roughages are mainly filler in the cattle’s diet. They are high in fiber but relatively low in energy. • Hay—A grass, legume, or grass-legume mix. • Silage—Includes corn (referred to as ensilage), barley, winter wheat, rye, oats, and pasture grass.

• Grains are high in energy but low in fiber. Common grains fed to cattle are corn, milo, barley and oats. Milo is a drought-resistant type of grain. Much less grain is needed in the cattle’s diet than roughage is. This is because grains fill cattle energy needs more than it fills their stomachs. Eg. corn, oats, barley, wheat, rye

• Oilseeds are very important in the cattle’s diet. They perform many functions such as providing energy, proteins and some fibre to the cattle’s diet. Some examples of oilseeds are soybeans and canola meal. Co-products or by products • Many co-products used for cattle feed are leftover ingredients from food production for humans. • Some common co-products fed to cattle include distiller’s grains, sweet corn cannery waste, bakery waste, grain screenings and apple pomace. • E. g. Cotton seed meal and cake, soya bean oil meal, Lin seed Meal, Peanut meal, Corn gluten meal.

Water: • Water is an essential requirement for the proper functioning of animals. Some of its main actions relate to: digestion and absorption of food; transport of nutrients throughout the body and metabolic wastes to the excretory organs (being a component of all body fluids); control of body temperature (conductive and evaporative cooling) and milk secretion (being a component of the milk). • Animals obtain their water requirements from three main sources: • - water in the food; • - water consumed voluntarily; • - water formed in metabolic activities of the body.

Feeding for different stages Colostrum Feeding For Calves • For getting healthy and productive cattle, you have to ensure your calves have received the colostrum. • Colostrum is the first milk which cow produce after giving birth of calf. • Ensure that a calf has received at least 2 liters of colostrum within three days after their birth. • It contains a large amount of globulin (a remarkable source of antibodies) that is urgent to maintain a healthy life and for protecting the cattle from infection. • Colostrum contain 3 to 5 times more protein and 5 to 15 times more vitamin A than general milk. It also contain magnesium, antithetic acid, iron, thiamine, copper, and chlorine etc. Colostrum acts like an laxative.

• Calf Starter Feed: Calf starter is a mixture of grains, grass, protein, minerals, vitamins and antibiotics. After a calf reaches the age of two weeks, reduce the amount of skimmed milk or whole milk from their mom. Then offer the calves a small amount of calf starter feed. After a few day, provide them a growing grain ration.

• Feeding Growing Animals: For proper and fast growth of your calves (which are under one year of age) adequate concentrate cattle feed is urgent. A considerable mixture of roughage is necessary for getting maximum growth. You can give this type of mixture to your growing calves (6 months or more) and adult cattle. Lactating Cattle Feeding: During the lactation, dairy cattle need much energy. Additional energy helps to increase the amount of milk. During this time, a concentrate mixture which is prepared with oil cakes, cereal grains, tapioca chips and laxative feed. • Feeding the Bulls: You can raise some bulls in your herd for the purpose of breeding. Bulls require more energy and other nutrients enriched food than dairy cattle. So always try to provide them sufficient amount of nutritious feed.

ADVANTAGES 1. Encourage growth and repair of the udder tissue 2. Get a strong and healthy calf at birth 3. Ensure there is enough energy for the cow while calving 4. Avoid difficult calving 5. Build-up of body reserves that will be used in the first two months after calving

• Always try to feed your cattle by your own or by the same person regularly. • High quality roughage can reduce concentrate feeding costs, and it’s also very suitable for the cattle. • You can replace 1 kg straw by using 4 to 5 kg fresh grass. Provide the cattle sufficient amount of prepared cattle feed to meet up the lacking of protein and other nutrients. • Follow a regular routine work while feeding your animals for maximum production. • You should give exact amount of feed for avoiding indigestion. • Avoid sudden feed schedule change. If you want to change their feeding time, then do it gradually. • Provide your cattle chopped grass and hay. • Store the cattle feed and feed ingredients in such a place which is well ventilated, dry and cool.

Pelleted soybean hulls. This is the soybean pod that has been processed into a pellet form. Soybean hulls (or pods) have a high protein and fiber content.

Cottonseed. Next to corn, cottonseed is almost nature’s perfect food for dairy cows – it has high levels of protein, fat, and fiber.

Dried distillers grains, or DDG, are a by-product from making ethanol from corn. DDG are a protein-packed food product for cattle.

Wet corn gluten is a by-product from making high-fructose corn syrup, or corn sugar. This is a low sugar, high starch feed product (most of the sweetness was removed to make the corn sugar), with lots of protein and fiber

Alfalfa hay. This is the same type of hay that is used to make the haylage, but it is cut into longer pieces, dried longer in the field, and baled into large square bales. Alfalfa hay has around a 20% protein content

Straw is great for roughage and for rumen health. This is mostly fed to the cows that are getting ready to calve. It keeps their rumen microbes happy, which makes the transition from pregnant to lactating easier on the cow.

• Vitamin and mineral supplement. The cows who have just calved have a vitamin and mineral supplement added for the first 30 days of lactation. The transition from pregnancy to lactating is a big one, and this extra energy boost helps the cows make that transition.