Many herds are currently engaged in drying off cows, as the focus shifts towards dry cow management across most farms. It’s also  important to consider nutrition plans when cows calve down this coming Spring, accounting for the following:

• A planned and well executed dry cow mineral programme.
• Calving down the cow in the correct Body Condition Scoring (BCS).
• Excellent animal husbandry in the week pre-and post-calving (no additional stressors).
• Careful transition diet planning.

Given how silage quality in many cases was hampered due to poor growth and weather, do you have sufficient high-quality forage available for when cows calve down come Spring 2025? If not, what’s your back-up plan?

Negative Energy Balance (NEB)

In the week post calving, cows produce more milk than their feed intake can provide for, resulting in Body Condition loss due to Negative Energy Balance (NEB). Typically, a cow reaches peak milk output 6-8 weeks post-calving but will only reach peak dry matter intake 10-12 weeks after calving. Such a cow’s diet must be energy dense enough to ensure body weight loss of less than 0.5 BCS between calving and breeding.

Dry matter intake typically increases by 0.75 – 1.0 kg/week post-calving, underlining the need for an energy-dense transition diet. This can prove difficult to control where silage quality is poor. In such a scenario, farmers must be prepared to fill the gap; otherwise, production will be compromised in the short-term, while in the longer-term, issues including poor fertility could be evident by May. Adequate concentrate supplement, depending on milk output, is paramount, with high energy grazed grass forming an essential diet component.

Monitoring NEB

• Low milk protein %: when energy is restricted in the diet – often caused by poor quality silage, delayed turnout and/or insufficient supplementation levels relative to cow output.
• Body condition loss across the herd (<25% of cows with a >0.5 unit of BCS loss in early lactation).
• A bulk tank milk fat: protein ratio > 1.4 (calculated by dividing the milk fat % by milk protein %); signals poor energy balance in the herd’s diet where compact calving occurs.

For more information, contact your local Agritech Sales Advisor here.

Prevention of metabolic issues next spring will hinge around management decisions that will be made over the next number of weeks. When costs associated with clinical cases are assessed alongside the time and labour involved in such cases, prevention is always better than cure.

BCS

It is always best practise to dry off cows at, or very close to same condition that she should calve down in (Target BCS 3.0 – 3.25). Therefore, the nutrition of the dry cow should just maintain condition over the 60-day dry period (Thin cows should be dried off early to allow for recouperation of condition).  Over-conditioned cows at calving are also problematic. Therefore, cows should be condition scored prior to dry off, which may result in grouping cows accordingly where large variation in the herd arises.

Silage quality – the decision factor

Feed plans for the dry cow will centre around what quality silage is available. High quality silage will need dilution to avoid over-conditioning or where quality is very low, some level of energy supplementation will be required. Testing dry cow silage and assessing how much silage reserve is available will paint a clear picture of what feed requirements will be. Where issues around calving occurred last spring, it is worthwhile also testing silage for mineral analysis to highlight any precursors – such as high potassium/ K%.

Dry Cow Mineral Provision

Feeding a dry cow mineral throughout the dry period is essential to build up mineral reserves and allow the cow to calve down without issue. Most Irish silages lack the required mineral levels to get the cow through the dry period, lending to the provision of a high-quality mineral supplement to avoid metabolic disease risks. High K levels in Irish silages is also a running trend, which will require a high level of soluble magnesium to help overcome the risk of milk fever. Research indicates a single case of Milk Fever is estimated to cost ~ €312; with sub-clinical cases estimated to cost a herd >€100/case.

In a high-quality dry cow mineral pack we should be looking for a high inclusion of a highly soluble source of magnesium, which should also be coupled with a complimentary inclusion of Phosphorus, a high inclusion of chelated/protected trace elements to overcome antagonists, and a strong all round vitamin pack (A, D3 & E).

For tailored dry cow mineral advice, get in touch with your local Agritech Sales Advisor here.