The best way to raise the
cow’s nutritional plane is to evaluate her feed.
adjust her nutrition program. Nichols says that you are much too late if you wait until that time to get her to the correct nutritional plane for lactation and rebreeding. To achieve the desired goal of bringing all the cows
to the BCS appropriate for the tasks ahead — program- ming the fetus, adequate resources that support lacta- tion and rebreeding — the nutrition plan needs to start 60 to 90 days beforehand. He says, “Once they are lactating, they are going
to start ‘moving a lot of fat off the back,’ mobilizing a lot of fat to maintain some of that lactation. So you need to have them in good condition before they calve.” You can put cows together for calving purposes
unless there are some so far out of condition that they have to remain on a more intensive feeding program. The gestation period of cows is about 281 days, so the producer has about 60 to 80 days after calving to get
them rebred. If the cow is drawing most of the energy required for lactation off her own fat reserves, it will affect her likelihood of returning to a reproductive state where she rebreeds on time.
Get ready for calving Nichols says that as the date approaches, “Make
sure everything is ready for calving. You want your heifers to calve away from your cows if possible (heif- ers will generally be bred to start calving about 30 to 45 days before the herd, as this gives them more time to rebreed with calving dates close to the rest of the herd). Get ready for that, so you can move cows off the calving ground onto another pasture. This helps reduce disease transmission and spreading. “Have all your calving tools ready. Make sure
your vaccination program is up-to-date. For enteric diseases like scours, we want to start the vaccines 2 to 5 weeks prior to calving so the antibodies to help prevent disease will be passed to the calf through the colostrum. “I hope your cows will be on a vaccination program,
pre-breeding and through the breeding season, and then prior to calving,” Nichols says.
NUTRITIONAL STRESS IS A THING OF THE PAST
Crystalyx.com l 800.727.2502
Stress can rob your calves of fast, healthy gains and proper lifetime development. CRYSTALYX® Brigade® Stress Fighting Formula is a highly palatable self-fed supplement that helps calves overcome nutritional stress associated with weaning, shipping and the receiving process. Your future looks bright with CRYSTALYX®.
tscra.org
November 2015 The Cattleman 69
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116