Cow condition

[Hummin-Cummins]

Our spring calving cows came in around a month ago, the calves were weaned off them after 10 days or so they were reasonably happy with the process as didn’t grumble to much.
I put them on barley straw for a week or so to help dry them off and they have sunk like you wouldn’t believe. They’re not due to calf till end of march so wondering if i should be feeding them hard now for a month or more to get some condition back on them ?
They’re angus x friesian 2nd calvers.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

TIA

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Give them silage...

 

[milkloss]

Depends what their diet is going to be in the lead up to calving. Imo now is your chance to hard feed and later is asking for big calves and hassle.

 

[Werzle]

Keeping cows in average condition all year round is the key rather than letting them get really thin or really fat and having to take drastic action.

 

[M-J-G]

I have always found thin cows to be the ones that give problems and I'd rather have a cow on the fat side of target than one that's thinner.

I aim to have them 3.5 or even 4 all year round, some say that's too fat, but I find them to be fine to calve and generally easier to keep a cow in good order than to let her loose it and then have to build her up from a low ebb.

As @Northeastfarmer says, just give them reasonable silage and don't forget dry cow minerals.

 

[Hummin-Cummins]

Give them silage...

They’re on silage now and having a couple of kilo a day of concentrate in with it to try and help mend them up a bit

 

[Davy_g]

Feeding straw to fresian x angus cows was always going to drop them in condition a bit - it will have had the desired effect of assisting to dry them off. I follow the exact same process as you come housing followed by weaning and drying off on straw. I feed a little silage so as there is not too much of a shock to their system when they go onto their winter maintenance feed of silage alone with the odd bale of hay or straw to help them cud. I have pedigree blondes and they put on too much condition at grass rearing a calf - its in their bloodlines so i need to pull them down before calving to ensure easy calving and that they dont have too much milk at calving, so bolus them all with hi iodine in November and free access to pre calver minerals too. Block calf February and a few late ones in March to April. Seems to work - impossible to maintain body score when at grass.

 

[muleman]

They’re on silage now and having a couple of kilo a day of concentrate in with it to try and help mend them up a bit

They maybe want dosing for fluke?

 

[scholland]

Following a natural cow condition cycle to fit with grass growth can certainly reduce feed costs.
The attached is a pretty good explanation. View attachment qms_cow_nutrition_timeline_poster_nov_2018.pdf

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Following a natural cow condition cycle to fit with grass growth can certainly reduce feed costs.
The attached is a pretty good explanation. View attachment 848936

Thankyou, sir, I'm going to print that!

We calve later than most, as we try to target peak spring pasture energy with our calving date (rather than calve down 10 weeks ahead of it like everyone else around here) - so that's really handy to have
Energy is the name of the game

 

[scholland]

Thankyou, sir, I'm going to print that!

We calve later than most, as we try to target peak spring pasture energy with our calving date (rather than calve down 10 weeks ahead of it like everyone else around here) - so that's really handy to have
Energy is the name of the game

There is a ewe one as well, very simple explanation of bcs I thought.

The amount of energy a suckler cow can store on her back and utilise over winter is pretty impressive.

 

[Formatted]

Hard food for suckler cows????

 

[Skintagain]

Get rid of parasites give them Silage, bugger the concentrates.