Are your cows ready to maximise Autumn/Winter milk bonuses?

The over-arching objective is to get cows achieving optimal milk output as soon as possible after calving whilst maintaining high health and fertility status.

However, achieving this will require autumn calving cows to be managed effectively during the dry period and the early weeks of their new lactation. The key focus is on the last three weeks pre-calving and the first three weeks of lactation. This period it called the ‘Transition Period’.

United Feeds’ nutritionist, Jenny Hamilton, further explains: “Preparation for a cow’s next lactation starts as soon as she is confirmed back in calf. The all-important target is a Body Condition Score of 2.75 to 3.0 at drying-off.

“Ensuring this is achieved entails the implementation of a specific and planned feeding regime and regular condition score monitoring throughout late lactation.”

Jenny continued: “Cows dried off during the late summer/early autumn period can be grazed initially. However, they should be brought indoors for the close-up period, three to four weeks before calving. During this period cows and first calving heifers should be offered highly palatable forages, which are low in potash and high in fibre.”

Palatability drives forage intakes, which is a key factor in determining a cow’s ability to increase milk output levels in the days and weeks directly after calving.

Low potassium silages should be made from grass swards that have not received any slurry or fertiliser containing potash.

These forages should be fresh & palatable, free from moulds and available ad lib. They should also have a low Dietary Cation Anion Balance (DCAB) value.

According to the United Feeds’ representative both cows and first calving heifers should be placed on the same management regime during the all-important transition period.

Development work carried out by at United Feeds has led to the formulation of bespoke dry cow management programmes that fully reflect the management conditions that prevail on dairy farms here in Northern Ireland.

The work shed light on two fundamental points: the need to offer cows and heifers specific pre-calver diets and the importance of feeding a pre-calver concentrate that helps meet the exact nutritional needs of these animals.

United Feeds’ pre calver concentrate ration primes the pre-calving animal for calcium release.

Jenny Hamilton again: “A complex hormone mechanism controls calcium mobilisation from the bones and gut, requiring magnesium.

To encourage calcium release we formulate our pre-calver to a strict mineral specification where we limit calcium and sodium but increase the magnesium and phosphorus. This is very different to a milking cow ration.”

She added: “The acid-base status of the cow also affects these hormone mechanisms. We include magnesium chloride not only to provide magnesium but to slightly acidify the blood increasing calcium availability.

“Forages that are too high in potassium will act to reduce magnesium availability. Our pre-calver ration helps to mitigate against clinical and sub-clinical milk fever. But the lower the potassium & sodium levels in the forages being fed, the lower the chance of milk fever.

“The only way of truly ascertaining this information is to perform a forage mineral analysis which your local United Feeds’ representative can organise.”

This close-up period is also a time when cows and heifers must receive optimal levels of all the key minerals, trace elements and vitamins to ensure a successful calving and a trouble-free start to the new lactation.

United Feeds’ pre calver concentrate includes organic selenium, copper, zinc and manganese, along with other essential trace elements, vitamins, antioxidants and biotin.

These play crucial roles in aiding calving ease, reducing the likelihood of retained placentas and metritis, reducing somatic cell count in early lactation, supporting hoof health, improving fertility through improved conception rates and reducing days to first service.

During the last three to four weeks of gestation it is crucially important to maximise intakes of forage and pre-calver to ensure cows calve with a good appetite and a rumen well prepared for the lactating cow diet.

It is equally important to monitor cows closely in the three-week period post calving. This assessment includes the regular checking of rumen fill in tandem with forage and concentrate intakes.

“Recording the temperature of cows seven days after calving is strongly advised,” commented Jenny Hamilton.

“Heightened temperatures are an indicator of disease and infections. A dairy cow’s normal rectal temperature is around 101°F (38°C).

“Matching a cow’s nutritional intake, particularly energy, to milk output and ensuring good forage dry matter intake is also a priority during the early weeks of lactation.

“She should lose no more than one-half of a condition score unit between calving and subsequent breeding.”

Modern dairy cows are genetically programmed to produce milk. Matching this potential with the actual levels of output secured is, very much, energy driven.

Jenny concluded: “United Feeds’ team of ruminant nutrition advisors are available to advise on how best to manage cows during the all-important transition period.This includes the monitoring of rumen fill and body condition scores.”