Calving outcomes determined by dry cow management
On both beef and dairy farms, management of the dry cow is critical for achieving successful calving.
Cows which were under-nourished in the dry period won’t have enough energy to function after calving.
Cows which were over-fed in the dry period often have calving difficulties and associated metabolic disorders after calving.
Management of the dry suckler cow
Producing a healthy calf without complications.
Passing the cleaning quickly after calving.
Calving down free of metabolic disorders such as retained afterbirth, ketosis, milk fever, or displaced abomasum.
Providing quality colostrum for the calf.
Providing sufficient milk of good quality to rear the calf.
Optimising grazed grass utilisation.
Going back in calf quickly.
You must establish the animal’s requirements first, as with all livestock nutrition decisions.
What are the cow’s requirements for maintenance, calf growth and mammary development?
What is her current body condition? Are cows over conditioned, or do you need cows to gain some condition?
Do heifers need to grow more before calving?
What is the calving date? Knowing the approximate dates of calving make it easier to group and feed dry cows appropriately.
Once you have established what the dry cow needs, you must then establish the most effective way of delivering these requirements to her.
It is worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of 2015 grass silages are quite low in crude protein.
This must be taken into consideration when preparing a feed plan for cows.
What feeds are on the farm? Controlled feeding of straw is a great way of keeping body condition right.
Is there sufficient forage in stock? What feeds are available locally?
What quality is the available feed? Is silage palatable? Is it wet or dry? How well has it preserved? Do you have a silage test result? What is the protein content?
What feeding system do you have on the farm, free access silage, or diet feeding? Can all dry cows eat at the one time?
Are cows grouped according to calving date and/or body condition?
What issues did you encounter around calving in the last calving season (look back at your records)?
All of the above issues have huge bearing on whether you can achieve the required performance consistently for the majority of cows in the herd.
How you feed dry cows will also have a large influence on how they will perform and digest their feeding after calving.
Remember that you want these cows to produce a lot of milk cheaply from grazed grass to maximise weanling weight.
Many will over-simplify mineral supplementation to dry suckler cows.
It is not uncommon to come across suckler herdowners who don’t supply any minerals at all to dry cows.
Many use a bolus in the dry period as their means of mineral supplementation, and this has proved to work very well on many farms.
I would suggest however, given the silage mineral profiles this year, that additional mineral supplementation beyond a bolus would be a good idea.
People in the labs who test silage tell me that many of the mineral elements required by cows are lower in silage samples, while the antagonists such as iron, aluminium and molybdenum are at very high levels, above the norm.
In other words, by all means use a bolus, but in conjunction with a good quality bag mineral that supplies additional macro minerals and vitamins.
Due to the weather conditions which prevailed for much of 2015, dosing is another box which needs to be ticked in suckler herds.
Dry sucklers should be treated for internal and external parasites soon after housing.
This will help with body condition improvement or maintenance while improving feed digestion.
Parasites, if untreated, dramatically reduce animal performance, and make your calving season goals even harder to achieve.
If you had calf health issues last spring, ask your vet about the best way of minimising the re-occurrence of these problems.
What should you vaccinate for? Most vaccines need time in the cows’ system before they provide optimum protection.
Don’t forget good hygiene practices in your housing as a means of reducing the spread of disease.
Remember, each box you tick is one less thing to worry about. Look back at your records and seek out effective solutions to past problems.
