It is no surprise that reproduction has huge impacts to productivity in the cow calf industry. The key to a healthy productive herd is based in a solid nutrition program that meets the needs of the animals that you are feeding.
When we look at the nutrient demands of our cow herd in a one year production cycle it is clear that nutrient demand starts to increase in the last trimester of pregnancy. This increased nutritional demand makes sense if we consider that 70% of fetal growth takes place in the third trimester reducing rumen size and subsequent intake, right before the demands of lactation occur. Lactation causes a dramatic increase in the nutrient needs of an animal while the uterus is recovering from calving and breeding is approaching. Because of all the nutrient demands on cows during this period body condition scoring is a great tool to implement to assess the current nutrient status of your herd. When done regularly, Body Condition Scoring is an excellent way to assess your nutrition program and can help to determine goals. A Body condition of 3.0 should be targeted at calving.
A good nutrition program catered to the last 45 to 50 days of pregnancy impacts the survival and long term health of the calf, future breeding performance of the cow, and reproductive success for next year’s calf. Good nutrition during this period includes providing animals a balanced mineral along with crude protein at 9% in late pregnancy and 11% during lactation with energy at levels of 60% in late pregnancy and 65% during lactation. Providing adequate nutrients to your animals can be done efficiently and accurately when forage and water testing is done to help balance diets to meet the needs of your animals. Testing is a great insurance program for your herd, it has the potential to save you money by feeding accurate diets resulting in less wastage and a healthy productive herd. For more information or other livestock related topics you can contact Leah Clark; Call the Agriculture Knowledge center 1-866-457-2377 or visit our website at www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca.
