Brian Reidy: Feeding the fresh calved dairy cow
Maintaining fresh-cow dry matter intake is one of the secrets to keeping your fresh cows healthy and productive during their lactation.
Before Christmas, I covered the management of the dry cow and how preparing them well for their next lactation will deliver a more profitable result from a healthy animal. Dry Matter Intakes need to be driven to deliver sufficient energy for their requirements based on their stage of gestation or lactation. The first half of 2026 looks like being a difficult period for milk price and as a result, optimising milk quantity and quality is a must. Driving dry matter intake and energy intake is critical. The approach of pulling feed in a low milk price year is crazy and will only end up with a stressed, malnourished and underperforming herd of cows. This will be detrimental to output, profit and fertility.
