Livestock Management RANCHING
Make Sure Second-Trimester Cows Get the Right Nutrition
By Gary DiGiuseppe T
HE EMERGING SCIENCE OF FETAL PROGRAMMING HOPES TO show how changes in the nutrition of a preg- nant cow will affect the future performance of
her soon-to-be-born calf, from quality of beef to repro- ductive capacity of females. A number of important discoveries have been made in a relatively short time. “It seems as though we should be able to do some
things in the future in terms of muscle cell development and improved health,” says Dr. Wade Nichols, senior technical services manager at Merck Animal Health. “What is interesting is that we used to think that
we could save a lot on our feed bill by cutting the cows back on their groceries in the second trimester. Their maintenance requirements are so much lower due to less milk production, and the fetus is not growing to any great degree during this time. They are really just maintaining. “We still can do that to some degree, but now when we talk about fetal programming, we fi nd that during
64 The Cattleman November 2015
the second trimester we might want to feed those cows a bit better than what we did in the past.”
When we talk about fetal
programming, we fi nd that during the second trimester we might want to feed those cows a bit better than what we did in the past.
Nichols continues, “If we provide a more adequate
nutrition program to the cow, we affect how the genes of the fetus perform, so later in life the calf that re- ceived optimum nutrition through its gestation period is able to develop more muscle cells and more fat cells in terms of marbling or intramuscular fat. In addition, it
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