The winter not only brings about cold weather and rain, but livestock farmers also have to prepare to ensure their animals’ nutritional needs are met. Because of the drop in nutrients during winter, it’s critical to start providing livestock with minerals essential for growth and development during the colder periods.
By adding supplements, grasslands become more digestible and livestock’s vitamin and mineral profiles are topped off. To get herds ready for weaning, breeding, backgrounding, or feed lotting, supplements should be fed to them.
Clifford Mtimkulu, founder of MC Enterprise and award-winning Free State farmer, and Gisela Bisschoff, a ruminant nutritionist at ADM, share their expertise on the supplementation of livestock during winter.
Understanding the nutritional needs of livestock
Replacement heifers, first- and second-calf cows, and senior brood matrons have different requirements. The bodily state of the cattle will disclose how much energy they have been consuming in proportion to their requirements, production potential, and surroundings.
To correctly grow replacement heifers, you must know their current weight as well as your intended weight for them at the time of first breeding. This will aid in the establishment of a supplement plan that will allow your herd to attain the proper average daily growth, puberty, and first breeding weight. To maximise reproductive rates and longevity, producers should target heifers at 55-65% of their mature weight at the start of the breeding season.
“The use of a supplement is to provide the animal with the requirements that are not supplied by the field, your supplementation depends on your conditions,” says Bisschoff.
Bred heifers that are about to turn two, need to be fed to have approximately half a body condition score better than their older herd matron counterparts. Females between the ages of two and three need to be supplemented after breastfeeding starts for them to gain adequate weight and develop to the right mature weight and size.
The mature cow is the centre of the cowherd. The needs of mature cows are essentially determined by their body weight, milking capacity, and condition rating. The right supplements will make it more likely that cows will become pregnant early in the breeding season, that reproduction rates will be excellent, and that there will be enough milk to maintain profitable weaning weights.
Nutritional value of forage
The nutritional value of forages might vary depending on the plant type, stage of plant development, and harvesting techniques. The amount of hay required to satisfy a beef cow’s protein needs might vary by up to 36% depending on the crude protein variation. The energy levels are also variable, according to forage assessments.
“To compensate for nutrients that may not be available in our natural grasses during the winter season. In order to ensure that the animals have a good body conditions and performance to survive during the hard season one has to understand the kind of forage that can be given,” says Mtimkulu.
Collected forage vs grazing
The calorie and protein levels must be matched whether you are feeding cows collected forage or employing a grazing method. Total digestible nutrients to crude protein ratios in appropriate cow diets should be around. Without having to overfeed or underfeed expensive protein or calories, will maximise forage intake and digestion.
“A lot of time people are seeing grazing ends towards the end of winter and the volume also decreases from the grass. The intake on the leagues increases and that’s the time you need to start looking at supplementary feeding and not only a league,” says Bisschoff
Many forages present a feeding problem because of their distinctive qualities. Forages may be poisonous, tastier than expected, or tainted with toxins. Anytime you have less-than-ideal conditions for harvesting or storage, or if your forage is exposed to environmental stressors, mycotoxins should be considered.
How much supplement to feed
Supplement over- or under-feeding has repercussions. Under-feeding causes herd mates to compete for available supplements, causing the range to expand in response to the supplement.
Understand how to adapt to winter weather conditions. The ambient temperature, as measured by air temperature, wind speed, and humidity, is the lower critical temperature. When temperatures fall below this level, more energy is required to maintain body weight. Cattle have a lower critical temperature above which they are both comfortable and efficient with their feed. Producers with foresight utilise the chart provided here to account for adverse weather conditions.
“You have to supplement the nutrient content on the body of the livestock and thus the infrastructure [is important to be able to do this successfully,” says Mtimkulu.
The cowherd will receive all the essential dietary elements if minerals, trace minerals, and vitamins are supplemented. The skeletal, reproductive, and immune systems of the animal must be developed and maintained, even though these nutrients are provided in considerably smaller levels than protein and calories.
ALSO READ: Podcast: How to supplement livestock this winter
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