monitor your cattles energy balance

[chalice]

Watch a couple of videos on how to monitor your cows energy balance and body condition score. www.onestoplivestock.ca.

[grassfarmer]

Or if you have cows you can do it for real.

[chalice]

GF not everyone is an expert like you. Some of us still realize we can learn something.

[rkaiser]

The one on the right would winter well but the one on the left could use a bit more carbs.

[Happytrails]

Good info especially the cow pies indicating the ration quality. I think their taller cowpies were OK for wintering cows but just. As far as BCS it is too late now to fatten up your cows. However I believe a thin cow that is gaining condition after calving will breed OK and maybe better than a fatter cow that is on poorer feed. Back in the dark ages we would feed barley chop to the herd for AI'ing. My point is that the nutrition level after calving is crucial. HT

[per]

If they have both had the same amount of feed and the same conditions you would have to consider culling the one on the left. For sure there could be a several hour conversation around this topic.

[grassfarmer]

Oh I don't consider myself an expert and realise I've lots to learn on lots of topics. This is pretty basic stuff though for anyone with any experience of feeding pregnant cattle through to calving. It's a bit like the Cattleman magazine "calving edition" where you get all the wonderous tips from guys with 16 cows and 3 years experience.

[rkaiser]

This could be fun Phil.

Even though the one on the right is a little fuller, he is still holding his belly like he is hungry. Wish they would take their caps off so we could see how far forward their hair swirl is. My guess is that it is father down the middle of their backs like mine. According to Gearld Fry, the location of the swirl not only tells us the marbling capabilities, but the butterfat content as well. Don't know if it tells us anything about the alcohol content in the beers the one on the right drank last weekend.

Come on chalice lighten up on old GF.

Or maybe you could help Phil and I out with some evaluations instead of being so serious all the time grassfarmer.

[chalice]

Actually,I have it on good authority that the grain consumed by the one on the right has been fermented and spent about 12 years in an oak barrel.

[per]

Is there a correlation to the number of years the grain spent in the Oak barrel to the quality of the the carbs or is it just a palatability issue increasing the consumption.

[chalice]

Strictly palatability.

[chalice]

All joking aside, I have euthanized 40- 50 down cows in the last 4-6 weeks in my practise area. This would tell me that there are probably at least 2-3X that many out there. These are all bigger producers trying to get by on poorer quality hay and just feeding more of it. Coupled with a tougher than usual winter, producers working off farm and a few other factors there are some real wrecks going on out there. When one producer I was working with called the feed mill for pellets he was told that that was their 12th call that day related to downer cows.
That is why we did the video. Even though it is very basic, sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a refresher course.
I fully agree with HT that post partum/pre-breeding nutrition is crucial to get cows to breedback. In this cold country it is cheaper to get a cow into a 3 to 3 1/2 and keep her there than ride the roller coaster.

[Happytrails]

Good on you chalice for offering a word to the wise. HT

[rkaiser]

While we are on the serious side. Could we perhaps be coaching these folks that are challenged by feed costs and off farm jobs to have a look at genetics?

Some cattle are simply more apt to use poorer quality feeds than others. There has been a movement over the last 30 or 40 years to create a steer that will eat lots of barley; and guess where his sisters have ended up. Not even so much a breed thing anymore. We find these barley eaters in every breed and their sisters in a lot of trouble. Especially when the farmer is challenged by finance to not supply the nutritional requirements necessary to meet the needs of these genetically modified barley eatin cattle.

Is that you on the right Chalice?

[kato]

We're in the process of buying some light calves to background... again... it's a habit, what can I say?

Anyway, looking at the condition of some of these little guys, I would be afraid to go see their mamas.

Some of these calves were wintered so cheap that they ran when Hubby cracked their first straw bale. I don't think they knew what bedding was. They ran! They soon figured it out though, and to say they had joy on their faces when they crashed down on their new cozy bed would be an understatement. Yes, calves can actually have happy expressions on their faces, especially when it's the first time they've been comfortable.

What kind of a winter they have had is anyone's guess, but I'm betting it wasn't a good one. If you have a calf that puts on pounds so fast you can see it over a two week period, it's compensating, no doubt about that.

Our policy is to never let our cows get so thin that we would be ashamed if someone saw them. Sure the hard workers will lose some weight, but there's no excuse for being able to hang your hat on their hips. That's not acceptable.

If you can't afford to feed them, you shouldn't have them. That's the bottom line. If we couldn't afford to keep the cows in good condition, we'd sell them.