Pre calving dry cow diet

[farmer JD]

hi just wondered what other people's diets are for cows 3-4 weeks off calving , just I have been experiencing some retained cleansings,the milk fever is ok tested some cows fresh calved and there calcium status was ok ! The cows are looking well before calving but I have been getting 1 out of 8 not cleanse anyone have an ideas ? They are brown Swiss cattle yielding about 9500 kg + I'm feeding 8 kg maize ,8kg chopped haylage average quality , and 4kg Brewers grains and mag chloride and calcium sulphate in diet , and a specialist dry cow nut with a calcium binder in at 2.5 kg per head , and ad lib haylage in ring feeders ,The cows are housed, I'm just wondering if there are any simple systems out there which work ? I was thinking of feeding ad lib haylage and a dry cow nut but was told the haylage alone would not supply enough energy , many thanks would appreciate your replies

 

[supercow]

We just feed our best haylage type bales and a bocm pre calving cake.and mineral tubs. Ur dry cow diet looks expensive! We don't get many problems with transition period

 

[farmer JD]

Ok do you feed your haylage in ring feeders ? And is it dry type of haylage ?i feed mine for farmers (boom)pre calving cake aswell,what rate do u feed per head,out of interest why do u have mineral tubs? When minerals are in nuts and I used to use crystal licks or downland , how about you ? What's your herd average yield ?and do they steam up ok as I was told the haylage would not supply enough energy to high yielding cows , do you feed mag or out ? Sorry too ask loads of questions I guess it's my way of communicating and learning new ideas etc thanks

 

[Clay52]

Get rid of the calcium binder (what actually is the ingredient that is the calcium binder). You don't want to bind calcium for pre fresh cows. Low calcium for pre fresh is outdated thinking especially when feeding anionic salts.

You want pre fresh cows to have plenty of calcium in their diet.

High numbers of RFM points to low calcium levels available to the cow.

Feeding negative DCAD minerals like mag chloride and calcium sulphate requires higher levels of calcium in the pre fresh diet for it to work optimally. Not less calcium.

 

[Clay52]

Also ad lib haylage and a few kg of pre fresh cow grain mix will supply plenty of energy for pre fresh cows. Get min 12% protein overall(forage + grain mix) and as long as they have enough access to haylage energy won't be the issue.

The opposite is usually the issue. People have a problem with fresh cows and they pump more energy into dry cows and that usually makes the problem worse. Milking quality haylage is often too high in energy to be optimal for dry cows.

It's the feed companies that want you to get more energy into them.

 

[farmer JD]

We use the binder as we had big troubles with sub clinical milk fever that seems ok now ,ok what sort of haylage do I go for ? Can I use a dry haylage which is soft to get the intakes ?is hay no use ? I find haylage has better intakes,for concentrates what would you feed at min,it's a transition nut with allminerals in etc and zeolite, i top dress that once a day ,what exact diet plan do you reccomend it's for a herd of 475 and 9500 litres yield and if I just fed haylage , how would you get mag chloride and Calcium sulphate into them ? At min it goes in tmr ,also if I made my own pre mix in what way is best to get minerals into them ? I just thought the nut was more accurate , I'm interest exactly what you reccomend ,btw are your cows high yielding ?

 

[bovine]

tested some cows fresh calved and there calcium status was ok !

Specifically what was tested? How many animals and exactly how close to calving?

 

[Courier]

There's a lot to recommend straw and pot-ale-syrup for dry cows.

 

[ploughman1963]

We fed the following transition diet for 3-4 weeks prior to calving - we have done so for last 3 calvings and it has transformed our calving, the way the cows come into the herd and post calving problems. Mixed in the tmr wagon - prepared by our nutritional adviser and not me - obviously

wholecrop barley silage 8kg
grass silage 6kg
maize silage 4kg
chopped wheat straw 3kg
protein blend 2.5kg
mag chloride flakes .15kg
dairy minerals .15kg
biotal gold .02kg

 

[happycows]

Maybe try a box of Animax CuI boluses at trying off on 20. They should provide all the trace elements you need including a good dose of iodine and hopefully right through until they are back incalf. They will need a double dose due to the size of your cows.
Thats what mine have and some dry old but palatable meadow haylage indoors in the last 3 weeks. I put down a pre calving mineral but they never take much.
i'd be very interested in seeing if it would cure.

 

[Beef farmer]

What are you paying for your bolus @happycows

 

[happycows]

What are you paying for your bolus @happycows

Not as cheap as @Dragon same supplier..... but then he was probably buying more. £82 a box of 20.

 

[Beef farmer]

What supplier?

 

[happycows]

Mole Avon

 

[farmer JD]

So £8.20 per cow if they have two blouses do they work ? Don't you feed any concentrate? Just haylage ?

 

[farmer JD]

Happy do you give them any mag chloride or out ?

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Similar to others T.E. bolus at dry off, then onto haylage and 2kg pre Calver nuts.
Also put out lick blocks, which on paper are not needed. I just think they work well.

 

[Ducati899]

We just feed our best haylage type bales and a bocm pre calving cake.and mineral tubs. Ur dry cow diet looks expensive! We don't get many problems with transition period

Exactly the same here and touch wood no problems

 

[coomoo]

Crikey this makes some reading. I had a little flare up of rims about Christmas and I'd put it down to stress. So all cows are dried and moved from cubicles to straw courts. Diet is silage, straw and mins in mixer. After the flare up I started being stricter on moving to calving pens at least two weeks prior calf, there they just get silage and plenty dry cow nuts and working a treat.

 

[coomoo]

'rims'  I mean rfm's