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Tall fescue is one of the most predominant forage grass species throughout the “Fescue Belt” – middle to southeastern U.S. – and makes up over 10% of the U.S. land area or approximately 37 million acres.
Is residual feed intake (RFI) – a measure of feed efficiency – the missing, ignored, unknown or simply late-to-the-party selection trait in today’s cow herd?
Have you yet come across the acronym RFI? Of course, you say, as you run and check the internet: Radio France Internationale, request for information, the RFI app for Android smartphones and also RFI Corp., a high-tech electronics company in the aerospace industry.
As many veterinarians, nutritionists, farmers and students would agree, management during the transition period is one of the most crucial roles to produce a successful lactation. Making your transition cow program a success relies heavily upon proper body condition score at calving, minimizing pre-calving energy intake and maximizing feed intake throughout the freshening period.
Although special attention is commonly given to transition cows, heifers calving for the first time are often not seen as high-risk animals. This may be due to the fact that heifers often suffer from lower rates of milk fever, or displaced abomasum during the fresh period, when compared to animals in their second or third lactation.
