High yielding dry cow diet?????

[Blue.]

It’s something I just can’t get right,I absolutely hate calving due to complications afterwards.

Currently feeding 5kilo of chopped straw with the rest made up of the milk cow ration,dry cow minerals and 150g of mag chloride.

Averaging just over 10k litres with a third of the herd in 1st lactation.

Any suggestions?

Tia Eulb ....

 

[Jdunn55]

I know where I worked kept it simple and there dry cows always did really well with very few problems, credit where credit was due they were brilliant at managing dry cows. The cows were ran in two groups far off calving drys (2-1 month away) and close to calving (anything less than a month). They were fed hay or silage bales in the winter and grass in the spring/summer. The close to calving group came in every day for half an hour ONLY and ate the same mix as the milking cows (maize and grass silage, blend and some minerals (not sure what minerals but I know urea was used and butter fat extra)). Like I say credit where credit was due they hardly had any problems and won the tms award for dry cow management a couple of years ago.

 

[Rossymons]

What are the complications - dirty cows? DAs? Milk fever?

On paper at least the diet looks fine.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Forget the mag chloride: feed a dry cow concentrate that contains the necessary minerals so you know each animal is getting the required amount. Close up cows should be given modest amounts of a diet that is similar to the production ration. Far offs rough hay or haylage but it needs to be palatable so they stay full.

Vet can take bloods to see what is going on with mineral status but dry cows need to be kept full of fibre.

 

[Blue.]

What are the complications - dirty cows? DAs? Milk fever?

On paper at least the diet looks fine.

All three DAs the worst then MF,didn’t have trouble with MF then realised I’d been over doing the mag chloride.

Forget the mag chloride: feed a dry cow concentrate that contains the necessary minerals so you know each animal is getting the required amount. Close up cows should be given modest amounts of a diet that is similar to the production ration. Far offs rough hay or haylage but it needs to be palatable so they stay full.

Vet can take bloods to see what is going on with mineral status but dry cows need to be kept full of fibre.

Tmr fed,I’m 100% sure they are getting the right amounts as there is only me feeding them.

Vet was the one to who suggested mag chloride.

 

[deleted user 837354]

All three DAs the worst then MF,didn’t have trouble with MF then realised I’d been over doing the mag chloride.

Tmr fed,I’m 100% sure they are getting the right amounts as there is only me feeding them.

Vet was the one to who suggested mag chloride.

I do not understand how the mag:cal thing works well enough to explain it but was always told dont feed dry cows anything green or unpalatable. Keeping them full up is supposed to help with DAs.

 

[Farmer Fin]

What are DM intakes like? Are you feeding fresh daily? What is the wastage like? Feed space? How often are you adding more animals to the close up group? Do they calve in the close up group / when are they moved? How quickly onto the milking cow ration after calving?

Do bloods for NEFAs and BHBs. Would do fresh cow calcium’s and dry cow urine analysis. These will give you the answers but necessarily the solution.

Had good success with calcium binders as opposed to partial dcab. But with everything with cows intake is king.

 

[Cowski]

Do you have any maize available? Can really sympathise with you as we’ve had problems with transition diets in the past and it’s so frustrating when it’s not going well.

 

[More to life]

I feed my drys in the same way only add lib with 1kg straw to 2kg mix fresh weight they eat nearer 6.5kg straw a day. My minerals contain some mag but it’s not a true decab. I’ve been feeding them like this for years never get a problem if we stick to the plan.

 

[More to life]

I would suggest you feed more straw

 

[farmboy]

Dry cows out then bought in 3 weeks before calving and fed a transition TMR of:
4kg chopped straw
20kg wholecrop
7og grass silage
2kg blend
0.15dry cow mins
0.15 mag chloride

Works pretty well here. If I ever get any problems it’s normally traced back to the man doing the feeding!!

 

[dinderleat]

They are expensive but dry cow rolls/pre lac pencils, 3 weeks pre calving should help in the short term quickly.

 

[Blue.]

What are DM intakes like? Are you feeding fresh daily? What is the wastage like? Feed space? How often are you adding more animals to the close up group? Do they calve in the close up group / when are they moved? How quickly onto the milking cow ration after calving?

Do bloods for NEFAs and BHBs. Would do fresh cow calcium’s and dry cow urine analysis. These will give you the answers but necessarily the solution.

Had good success with calcium binders as opposed to partial dcab. But with everything with cows intake is king.

Good intakes
Fresh every day
Minimal waste
Loads of feed space/loafing area spare cubicles. They look a picture.
We add and remove cows weekly,only one group.
They are removed into a straw pen to calve,as soon as calved they move into a straw pen on the milk cow diet,stay on straw till happy enough to go into cubicles.

Do you have any maize available? Can really sympathise with you as we’ve had problems with transition diets in the past and it’s so frustrating when it’s not going well.

No maize or whole crop.

I would suggest you feed more straw

My thoughts also,thinking the diet needs watering down more with straw.

 

[Blue.]

Dry cows out then bought in 3 weeks before calving and fed a transition TMR of:
4kg chopped straw
20kg wholecrop
7og grass silage
2kg blend
0.15dry cow mins
0.15 mag chloride

Works pretty well here. If I ever get any problems it’s normally traced back to the man doing the feeding!!

What are they on once dry?

 

[Ducati899]

Ad lib hay dry cow licks mag flakes,2 mf’s and 1DA since jan 18

 

[Blue.]

Ad lib hay dry cow licks mag flakes,2 mf’s and 1DA since jan 18

What sort of yield?

I tried haylage last year and it didn’t work,on paper it should have been perfect dry cow feed as it hadn’t had slurry or fert for years.

 

[Ducati899]

Same as yours,simple as this here for my girls

 

[Llmmm]

Good intakes
Fresh every day
Minimal waste
Loads of feed space/loafing area spare cubicles. They look a picture.
We add and remove cows weekly,only one group.
They are removed into a straw pen to calve,as soon as calved they move into a straw pen on the milk cow diet,stay on straw till happy enough to go into cubicles.

No maize or whole crop.
My thoughts also,thinking the diet needs watering down more with straw.

It’s something I just can’t get right,I absolutely hate calving due to complications afterwards.

Currently feeding 5kilo of chopped straw with the rest made up of the milk cow ration,dry cow minerals and 150g of mag chloride.

Averaging just over 10k litres with a third of the herd in 1st lactation.

Any suggestions?

Tia Eulb ....

The biggest problem with dry cow diets is magnesium chloride it is used by most nutritionist to prevent milk fever which it does and keeps the farmer happy but its the lazy mans way of doing things mag chloride has huge side effects if its over fed or fed for too long ideally it should only be fed for 2 to 3 weeks pre calving ideally urine phs should be used to tweak the amount of mag chloride fed.All this talk of complicated diets can be solved by growing low potassium high quality silage and it will eliminate most problems.

 

[pappuller]

We find if we feed a forage that has come off a pasture that has been well slurried we get issues with mf which then leads to other problems. Go back to a non slurried forage and things settle down. similar diet to you 5kg straw, 15kg haylage, 1kg precalve rolls, 100grms dry cow min, 100grms mag flakes. Close ups are fed an additional 1kg pre calve rolls, 3 day mix split into 3 piles and put out with handler.
V few probs until the above occurs

 

[deleted user 837354]

We find if we feed a forage that has come off a pasture that has been well slurried we get issues with mf which then leads to other problems. Go back to a non slurried forage and things settle down. similar diet to you 5kg straw, 15kg haylage, 1kg precalve rolls, 100grms dry cow min, 100grms mag flakes. Close ups are fed an additional 1kg pre calve rolls, 3 day mix split into 3 piles and put out with handler.
V few probs until the above occurs

Well slurried probably means the herbage is full of phosphorous and potassium.