Forage first - Managing performance this winter

Forage budgeting

Weather is one factor that farmers cannot control, and with this in mind it is good to budget for a rainy day... or two.

The length of time stock spend indoors is dependent on weather conditions in both late autumn and early spring.

Planning a winter feed budget allows decisions to be made early, before feed shortages occur, and provides a plan to help manage dairy & beef performance over the winter months. Build a reserve into your feed budget: a surplus of 25-30% of requirements at the end of the winter is a valuable asset.

The feed budget calculator is a simple calculation, based on the number of animals, the number of months for feeding and their predicted feed intakes to show if there will be a fodder surplus or deficit on farm.

Try the Specialist Nutrition Feed Budget Calculator here

It is important to take stock of what you have now and get on top of it if there is a shortage, don’t feel like there’s nothing you can do.

Forage analysis

Analysing on-farm forage is the first step in developing any winter diet. A nutritionally balanced dry cow diet, with the correct mix of minerals is key to maintain herd health and productivity into the future.

Precalver minerals are designed to reduce metabolic diseases, improve gut integrity, and increase longevity from improved calf survival rate to next lactation.

Forage analysis is also the first step in formulating finishing diets for beef cattle to ensure the forage contribution to the diet is maximised and purchased concentrate input is kept to a minimum.

As well as maximising forage inclusion in the ration, without forage analysis, it is very difficult to formulate a balanced diet that the cattle will thrive on effectively.

As pits and bales are fed throughout the winter it is important to re-analyse when changing from one cut or batch of bales to maintain the balance in the diet.

Formulating a diet

Nutrition is arguably the most important aspect of any business in animal production, as it has knock-on effects on health and welfare, fertility, lactation, production, and efficiency. Delivering balanced and high-quality diets tailored to the animals’ stage in life can help them reach their production potential.

Working with a nutritionist/advisor has many benefits and one of the most important elements of this will be helping you build your diets and feeding plans for the winter months.

At this point you will have hopefully secured good quality silage, assessed the nutritional value of your grass silage and made decisions in relation to what additional supplementation is needed.

If you experienced problems last year, then work with your nutritionist during the dry cow period to address these with specific mineral and trace elements supplementation. This approach can help address milk fever issues, hoof health which impacts on milk yields, and build better rumen function for improved production.

Talk to the team at Specialist Nutrition about analysing your forages and selecting the best mineral to balance the diet and manage herd health for your transition cows and finishing cattle.

Specialist Nutrition | Moist Feed and Forage Specialists

Call 051 833071