Getting nutrition right during a dairy cow’s dry period can make a big difference to her health and the health of her calf.
Getting nutrition right during a dairy cow’s dry period can make a big difference to her health and the health of her calf. But it’s also a key contributor to her milk yield after calving. New research from the University of Illinois shows diets containing consistent energy levels and the rumen-boosting supplement monensin may be ideal during the dry period.
“Many producers use a ‘steam up’ approach where you gradually increase the energy intake during the dry period to help adjust the rumen and adapt the cow to greater feed intakes after calving. Our work has shown that's really of questionable benefit for many farms, and it may be safer to just keep a constant level of feed intake before calving,” says James Drackley, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Illinois and co-author on a study published in the Journal of Dairy Science.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers fed cows either a controlled-energy diet throughout the dry period or a variable energy diet containing greater energy during the close-up period. The two diets made no difference in how the cows performed or in any of their metabolic indicators after calving.
Read more: University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Science
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