Post by rd200 on Oct 22, 2016 19:36:01 GMT -5
If posted a few times about my thin Jersey. Seemed like no matter what I fed her, how much grain, how low of protein, etc she just is thin.
Well, we are making progress! Not a ton, but we are getting there. Ive been seperating the 2 calves from her for 12hrs a day for about a month or more now. Giving her a break, bring down production, plus they were beating up her teats. Calves are almost 4 months old now, they look awesome. Really great condition. Anyways, I dropped her grain pretty considerably, down to about 6-7# a day now. Which has actually helped her drop in production plus seperating the calves helped too.
And I switched from a 12% all stock processed feed to an Organic 14% calf grower. (Idk why they call it a calf grower, calves need higher protein than 14%, but that's besides the point i guess) it's all grains, not processed pellets. She loves it!! Plus I added in BOSS to that too.
Im not sure if this makes sense, but, I feel like all the grain I was pushing on her almost made her too full & she didn't seem like she ever had a really nice tight, full rumen. Now she always looks full and devours her grain where as before she ate it but not great. And even though it wasn't high protein, it still pushed production for HER.
Down side is, the feed is twice as expensive as what I was feeding but I'm feeding half as much too. So I guess it's a wash really. I don't really care that it's organic, I wish I could get it at my conventional feed mill but they won't do it unless it's 500# batches.
I do have one question, going into winter now, with her increased energy needs because of the cold, I wonder if she's gonna stop any progress we've made up to this point.?? Or I guess I'll have to wait and see.
She's already increased her hay intake alot and it's still 50-60degrees here most days.
Just thought I'd update. Any advice welcome. One of these days I'll get pics up of her.
Well, we are making progress! Not a ton, but we are getting there. Ive been seperating the 2 calves from her for 12hrs a day for about a month or more now. Giving her a break, bring down production, plus they were beating up her teats. Calves are almost 4 months old now, they look awesome. Really great condition. Anyways, I dropped her grain pretty considerably, down to about 6-7# a day now. Which has actually helped her drop in production plus seperating the calves helped too.
And I switched from a 12% all stock processed feed to an Organic 14% calf grower. (Idk why they call it a calf grower, calves need higher protein than 14%, but that's besides the point i guess) it's all grains, not processed pellets. She loves it!! Plus I added in BOSS to that too.
Im not sure if this makes sense, but, I feel like all the grain I was pushing on her almost made her too full & she didn't seem like she ever had a really nice tight, full rumen. Now she always looks full and devours her grain where as before she ate it but not great. And even though it wasn't high protein, it still pushed production for HER.
Down side is, the feed is twice as expensive as what I was feeding but I'm feeding half as much too. So I guess it's a wash really. I don't really care that it's organic, I wish I could get it at my conventional feed mill but they won't do it unless it's 500# batches.
I do have one question, going into winter now, with her increased energy needs because of the cold, I wonder if she's gonna stop any progress we've made up to this point.?? Or I guess I'll have to wait and see.
She's already increased her hay intake alot and it's still 50-60degrees here most days.
Just thought I'd update. Any advice welcome. One of these days I'll get pics up of her.