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The 2021 World Dairy Expo was my first trip since March of 2020. It felt long overdue, and I felt like it had been much longer than 18 months since I last traveled, but after two-and-a-half days of absorbing all the knowledge I could and catching up with as many people as I could, I was ready to be home again.
Nutrient requirements in early gestation aren’t much greater than maintenance requirements (unless the cow is lactating), but as the fetus grows, the cow’s nutrient needs increase.
Most producers recognize that anything done on the farm or ranch comes with a cost. This is true with the cow herd for critical functions such as reproduction and health. Common costs include the purchase of bulls or A.I. supplies for breeding.
Supplementation plays a vital role in your cow herd both economically and in animal welfare. It can improve body condition scores (BCS) of your cows, improve calving and enhance the utilization of forage resources. The most important factor to the utilization of supplements is forage testing.
Winter nutrition and management has many focal points, but there are a few management decisions all cattle producers should place on their to-do lists.
It is a moving target that changes. Not only does the presence of mycotoxins change year by year due to field conditions, plant stress, moisture or drought, the conditions within a bunker or forage bag can be different in different locations.
Looking back to the 2019 forage year, it was a disaster for some dairy farms and a challenge for most. It was almost a perfect storm; several factors that could go wrong happened somewhere.
Most forage testing laboratories attempt to provide accurate and repeatable results to their clients. In the long term, their reputation and success depends on accurately predicting the feeding value of the forage.
Has the hay you plan to feed this winter been tested? If so, you have the tools necessary to help maintain appropriate body condition for your herd and better plan for those potential winter storms. If you haven’t tested your hay, that $30 will be money very well spent.
