“Happy New Year!" The beginning of the year, for many, brings about a time of year where we usually create new resolutions for ourselves. While some of us are making goals to lose a few pounds and get a smaller waistline, we should also be making goals and plans to do the opposite for our cattle. The last stage of gestation for cows is nutritionally demanding and only increases after the calf comes, as that cow begins to produce milk for that calf as well as maintaining enough condition to breed back in a few months. If you have been feeding those stored forages and feedstuffs from this fall, now would be a great time to recheck your current feed availability in the hay shed and storage bins.
Maybe you have some cattle that came off the range a bit light this year and just haven’t put on as much weight as you would like them to have prior to calving. Recheck your ration to be sure you have enough energy and protein in the mix to allow for those gains. A mature cow (1,100 pounds) needing to go from a body condition score (BCS) of 4 to 5 in the last few months of pregnancy will need roughly 13 pounds of total digestible nutrients (TDN) and 1.65 pounds of crude protein (CP) every day. This can be accomplished with good or premium hay that can allow that cow to eat about 22 pounds of dry matter daily. Lower-quality hay/stored forage will not digest as quickly and will minimize the quantity of feed our cows can fit in their rumen.
As we prepare for calving season, we need to have these BCS scores of our mature cows and heifers in the front of our minds. It is still a ways off on the calendar, but proper condition of our animals at calving can have an impact on our breeding season conception rates. One study showed mature cows with a BCS of 4 at calving had conception rates of only 67% at day 40 of the breeding season while those cows with a BCS of 5 had rates closer to 79%. This is especially important for our first-calf heifers who have a lot of nutritional demands and need that extra condition and would be better off at a BCS of 6.
As we prepare for our calving season, one of our best New Year's goals will be remembering adequate nutrition beforehand will help cows be strong enough to calve, begin producing milk and recuperate before breeding season. "Have a great January!”
References omitted but are available upon request by sending an email to the editor.
