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Basic Beef Cow Nutrition. Katherine Whitman, DVM, MS Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center. Overview. Recognizing a problem Basic requirements Matching cow cycle with forage cycle Critical time points in the cow cycle Evaluating feedstuffs BRaNDS program application
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Basic Beef Cow Nutrition Katherine Whitman, DVM, MS Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center
Overview • Recognizing a problem • Basic requirements • Matching cow cycle with forage cycle • Critical time points in the cow cycle • Evaluating feedstuffs • BRaNDSprogram application • Nutrition in practice
How do we know? • Tools to evaluate nutritional status • Body Condition Scoring • https://beef.unl.edu/learning/condition1a.shtml • Behavior? • Health issues • Increases is morbidity or mortality • Unthrifty • Ineffective preventatives, treatments • Performance issues • Reproductive deficiencies • Poor growth
Nutritional Requirements • NRC for technicals • Minimum requirements • Feed values are averages • Feed analysis is under utilized!! • Sampling-what feedstuffs?
What does she need? • Age? • Stage of production? • Body condition? • Environment? • Feedstuffs available? • Producer goals?
Production Cycle Lactation Grazing Supplement?
Nutritional Demands • Demands vary with physiologic state of cow • Trimester • Lactation • Growth • Other stressors
Determining What to Feed • Availability • Cost • Feasibility • Quality
Feedstuff Evaluation Testing LOOK!!! Ask questions
What is the Focus? • Major balancers • Protein: 8% Cows, 13-14% Heifers (MINIMUMS!!) • Energy: TDN, NEm, NEg, NEl • Ca:P ratio-what is appropriate? • Adjustments • Supplementation??
Forage dry matter intake relative to forage crude protein concentration Source: Adapted from Moore and Kunkle, 1995
Stimulate Fermentation Decrease Intake Increase Milk fat Stimulate Milk Production Carbohydrate Fractions Total Carbohydrate Structural Nonfiber Carbohydrate Carbohydrate (NDF) Neutral Sugars Starches (NSC) Organic Acids Acid Detergent Detergent Hemicellulose Fiber Soluble Fiber Pectins Cellulose Fructans Lignin Maillard ß-Glucans Protein
Case background • 2 Year Olds 1560 • 3 Year Olds 1242 • Matures 5894 • Calving season begins March 21 • Wean October 20 • Turned out to winter grazing • Winter ration? • Other questions?
Feeding options • Supplemental forages • Supplemental concentrates • Corn stalks • http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/ec290/build/ec290.pdf • Dry lot • http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=1639 • https://beef.unl.edu/confinement-cows-series-part-1-nutritional-considerations
Reading Feed Analysis Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) Analysis
Ration formulation • Scratch paper • Rules of Thumb • Excel spreadsheets • Numerous online resources • Software programs • BRaNDS • BRaNDS.xlsm • NRC • D:\NRC\UNL Practicum Revised NRC - November 2013.xls