Dairy cows need adequate, balanced nutrition in sufficient quantities. If the animals do not receive good nutrition, their productivity will decrease, the fat content of the milk will be much lower, its taste will worsen. Dairy cows should be fed properly after calving to provide enough dairy for calves. The article discusses the aspects of proper feeding of dairy cows.
The basics of the diet and its indicators
With a lack of food, mineral and vitamin components, the productivity of dairy cows is significantly reduced. With continued shortage feeding, animals may experience vitamin deficiency, fragility of bones and hooves, exhaustion, and even death.
In addition, if cattle is poorly fed, immunity and resistance to infectious diseases are reduced. In order for the animals not to get sick and feel good, the farmer must monitor nutrition, feed them in a balanced manner, include minerals, proteins, fats, vitamins, carbohydrates in the diet.
The preparation of the diet is an important point during which the weight, age of the cow, its keeping conditions and weather conditions are taken into account. There are 1 feed unit per 100 kg of weight.
Nutrition for dairy cows:
Feed | Daily rate | Dry matter | Feed units | Digestible protein | Calcium | Phosphorus | Carotene |
Hay meadow | 12 kg | 9.6 kg | 5.5 kg | 588 g | 84 g | 24 g | 180 mg |
Turnip | 15 kg | 1.2 kg | 1.3 kg | 105 g | 5 g | 5 g | — |
Potatoes | 5 kg | 1 kg | 1,5 kg | 60 g | 1 g | 3.5 g | — |
Compound feed | 4,5 kg | 4 kg | 4,5 kg | 495 g | 4,5 g | 13.5 g | — |
Carrot | 6 kg | 0.8 kg | 0.8 kg | 48 g | — | — | 360 mg |
Common salt | 0.07 kg | ||||||
Total diet | 42.57 kg | 16.6 kg | 13.6 kg | 1296 g | 94.5 g | 46 g | 540 mg |
The amount of feed is also increased during milking to increase cow's milk production and prolong lactation. But it is undesirable to overfeed the animal, because constant overload of the stomach and intestines can provoke the development of diseases.
The system and composition of the diet
The ration of a milk dairy cow consists of three components: the main, balancing feed and productive compound feed.
Main feed
The main food is rough food, which is given to animals twice a day, periodically removing uneaten leftovers. This type includes such products:
- hay;
- husk;
- straw;
- chaff;
- husk.
The products contain a large amount of fiber, such foods contribute to increased salivation, a decrease in acidity in the stomach. Feed the main feed before concentrated food. But experts recommend adding the main feed to the cow feeder regularly. In the total daily diet, the amount of main feed should be at least 50%.
Balancing
A diet is needed to even out a protein deficiency or excess in a rough basic diet. A balanced diet is required to make up for a lack of nutrients. Feed includes mixed feeds that contribute to the establishment of protein balance. With its excess, cows should receive oats, triticale, barley.
With a lack of protein, animals are fed:
- soybean meal;
- rapeseed cake;
- silage pellet.
It is the balancing food that the animal needs to synthesize the maximum amount of milk.
Productive feed
If cows receive a well-balanced food, on average they give about 10-15 liters of dairy products. To provide the rest of the milk and the overall high productivity allows productive feed. Each cow should receive a certain amount of such feed, based on the weight of the animal, the amount of milk yield and other indicators.
Productive feed consists of concentrates. On average, at one meal, a burenka can get 3-4 kilos. But, in the presence of a high starch content in the balancing feed, productive feed should not exceed 2 kilograms. A highly productive cow is fed in concentrates every 4 hours in small quantities.
Calculation of diet
The amount of nutrition is determined only by the solids content. For example, on average, a cow needs 2–3 kilograms of solids per 100 kilograms of animal weight. With a lack of succulent feed, this figure can increase to 4-4.5 kilograms.
The daily ration of a dairy cow should be 50% coarse feed, the rest is distributed between the balancing and productive feed. A burenka weighing about 500 kilograms with a milk yield of 16.5 liters of milk should receive approximately such products, in this quantity:
- silo - 30 kg;
- sugar beets - 5 kg;
- hay - 6 kg;
- sunflower meal - 1.5 kg;
- wheat bran - 700 g;
- barley flour - 1 kg.
Necessarily in the structure of the daily diet includes watering. All highly dairy cows drink water in larger quantities than medium or low dairy cows. For 3 liters of milk, 1 liter of water is taken. In winter, cows drink about 35-40 liters, in the summer - up to 50-60 liters. Water is given three times a day.
Diet of cows depending on the period
For cows of all breeds and ages (the exception is newborn calves), the basis of the diet is made up of hay and green masses. Other foods are considered complementary foods.
Winter feeding
In winter, the basis of the diet is dry food - straw and hay. It is supplemented with root crops, animal feed, silage. Hay can be harvested independently or purchased in finished form. For each cow per day there are about 15-20 kilograms of hay. When buying it, it is important to carefully monitor the quality of the product: take a sample from under the upper layers of a bale or stack.
What products and how much they give a cow in winter:
Stern | Daily rate | Feed units | Digestible protein |
Common salt | 700 g | ||
Legume grass | 15 kg | 3.3 kg | 360 g |
Meat and bone meal | 100 g | 100 g | 15 g |
Hay meadow | 15-20 kg | 2.5 kg | 288 g |
Meat flour | 500 g | 400 g | 257 g |
Oatmeal | 2 kg | 2 kg | 144 g |
Sunflower meal | 500 g | 600 g | 181 g |
Wheat bran | 500 g | 400 g | 65 g |
Barley ground | 1.1 kg | 1.1 kg | 94 g |
Summer ration
In summer, cows are fed differently than in winter. The main feed for cows is fresh, juicy grass, containing all the necessary elements and substances for the livestock body and its best productivity. But for highly milk cows per 1 liter of milk, 300 grams of concentrates are added to the diet. Feeding cows in the summer is based on the type of content:
- stall - cows eat all the food in the stalls, including freshly cut grass;
- grazing - cows do not receive top dressing in stalls or the total amount of complementary foods does not exceed 25% of the nutritional value of the daily ration;
- stall and pasture - the main feed, about 50-75%, the animals get in the stalls, the rest - in the pasture;
- pasture stall - about 50-70% of the daily feed intake is green grass from the pasture.
For dairy cows, the pasture type of content becomes effective only when the animals have access to a large amount of succulent grass - about 0.5 ha per cow. In other cases, Burenka needs to be fed silage and concentrates.
The table below indicates what and in what quantities to feed a dairy cow in the summer:
Stern | Daily rate | Feed units | Digestible protein |
Common salt | 700 g | ||
Hay meadow | 6 kg | 3.6 kg | 330 g |
Blood flour | 300 g | 200 g | 227 g |
Alfalfa Hay | 2 kg | 1 kg | 206 g |
Sunflower meal | 600 g | 700 g | 238 g |
Corn silo | 5 kg | 1 kg | 90 g |
Corn flour | 500 g | 600 g | 36 g |
Red carrot | 4 kg | 500 g | 36 g |
Wheat bran | 1 kg | 800 g | 130 g |
Oatmeal | 2 kg | 2 kg | 154 g |
Transition stage
The specificity of feeding dairy cows during the stall period is the transition time. So that the animal does not suffer due to malfunctions of the digestive system, the cows are carefully transferred to roughage with a high fiber content. It is also especially important for borenka to consume minerals, including magnesium.
The diet of cows after the end of meadow time is compiled approximately according to the following estimates:
- rough food - 38%;
- juicy food - 34%;
- concentrates - 28%;
- solids - 5 pounds per 100 kilograms of weight.
Dairy cows with an average weight of 500 kg per day should receive 5 kg of hay and hay, 2 kg of straw, about 9 kg of corn silage, 7 kg of beets, 2.4 kg of concentrate and 9 kg of feed units.
What is fed calving cows?
Calving cows consume more food and their diet should be nutritious. For such cows, the amount of concentrated feed is increased to 45% of the total daily intake. Mandatory presence of root crops.
Particular attention in the diet of such cows is given to the mineral composition in the feed. Increase the norm of magnesium, phosphorus, calcium. To do this, special mineral mixtures, wheat bran, flaxseed cake, dry yeast, etc. are added to the main feed. Silage and acidic feed, which are present in large quantities in the diet, are especially negative for the productivity of dairy newborn cows. Experienced farmers recommend giving animals chalk or baking soda.
A calving cow continues to develop on average until the 3rd calving. Such cows are fed so that the nutrients contained in the diet are sufficient for the formation of milk and for the growth of the animal:
Type of feed | The amount of feed during milk yield, kg / day. | |||
8 l / day | 12 l / day | 16 l / day | 20 l / day | |
Hay meadow average | 8 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
Spring straw | 4 | 4 | 2 | — |
Grain and grass silage | 5 | 5 | 7 | 10 |
Potatoes | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
Beetroot | 3 | 4 | 6 | |
Fodder carrots | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
Food waste | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
Leftover bread | 0,5 | 1 | 2 | |
Wheat bran | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
Meal, cake, bean flour | — | — | — | 1 |
Common salt | 0,055 | 0,07 | 0,09 | 0,105 |
Newly born cows need a sufficient amount of structural fiber and a high energy content; special preparations for the prevention of ketosis are included in the diet.
What is feeding highly productive dairy cows?
Feeding is based on the fact that in such animals metabolism is significantly accelerated, in comparison with conventional breeds. To maintain this level of metabolism, the diet of highly productive dairy cows should consist of:
- 25% of minerals and vitamins;
- 25% easily digestible protein;
- 50% of fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients.
Any deviations from the pattern may result in reduced cow productivity. The basis of the diet of highly productive cows should be hay, silage, fresh grass. It is advisable to supplement such food with a certain amount of potatoes and beets. An excellent source for energy is concentrated feed, but in the total amount of food it should occupy no more than 25%. The animal is fed 3-4 times a day strictly according to the regimen.
The daily diet for high productivity is distinguished by the following indicators. For this, the farm prepares a scheme in advance, according to which there is a rationing for the corresponding lactation phase:
Cow Feed Product | Sharing | Mid lactation | End of lactation |
Hay | 10% | 14% | 15% |
Haylage | 14% | 22% | 26% |
Silage | 19% | 24% | 27% |
Roots | 12% | 10% | 8% |
Concentrates | 45% | 30% | 24% |
At the same time, in one gram of dry matter contains 17% protein during milking, then the rate decreases by 2%. For highly productive cows, a concentrate type of feeding is partially suitable. This is achieved by increasing the exchange energy in a kilogram of dry matter.
New feed for lactating cows
Today it is fashionable to granulate natural feed - they help increase the productivity of cows. For many farms today it does not seem difficult to purchase a pellet mill, the advantage of which is to save money on the procurement and purchase of feed, if you spend it rationally and as accurately as possible.
There are also disadvantages to such nutrition. Feeding dairy cows exclusively with pellets, even when combined with roughage, can aggravate their health. In animals, the amount of milk and its fat content may decrease. The scar starts to work incorrectly.
It is more efficient to make a diet based on 50% granular additives with silage and other bulky feeds.
Sprouting natural feed is equally popular. Such a novelty is considered the best in comparison with dry species. There are several explanations for this:
- The food is environmentally friendly and as affordable as possible. The cost of such food will be many times cheaper than the purchase of dry food.
- Feeding sprouted grain of cereal crops provides the need for fiber with a small amount of acid.
- Such nutrition guarantees an increase in milk yield and an increase in the quality of dairy products.
- For the farmer, such feeding will be much more convenient.
Sprouted seeds of legumes are the most popular. They are rich in large amounts of fat and have a beneficial effect on the life expectancy of cattle.
Equally popular is feeding cows with extruded feed, which is produced by processing grain. Food readiness is achieved with a short-term pressure and temperature difference. Feeding this food contributes to the delivery of milk more by 20-40%.
Extruded feed is quickly and thoroughly digested by the animal. It is convenient to store for several months. The feeding of cows in winter becomes especially easy, because it is permissible to store feed in bulk in dry rooms.
The same type of feeding cows
Recently, the same type of feeding of dairy cows has been very popular among farmers - it includes the rational use of the food base, the diet is exactly the same at all times of the year. But even this type of feeding has certain rules that are important to observe:
- Sowing in large areas requires clover, corn and other crops.
- In summer, let the cow go to pasture only until noon.
- To create stable conditions and not change the diet for cows - this provides an increase in milk yield.
There are also disadvantages to the same type of feeding cows: it is very difficult to achieve a record increase in productivity. But it eliminates abrupt transitions from one diet to another, which becomes stressful for the animal. Productivity does not change throughout the year.
The ration of dairy cows should be balanced, nutritious and useful, because productivity indicators depend on this. Dairy cows need nutrition, where vitamins and trace elements will be present.
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Ukraine. City: Kryvyi Rih
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