Feeding a fat cow - pics added- update
May 10, 2017 9:01:00 GMT -5
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Post by rd200 on May 10, 2017 9:01:00 GMT -5
So my heifer Maple freshened April 16th. Nice super easy calving, has been great since. She has always been chunky. Dam raised until 10 months. No grain from birth until a week before freshening. And still has always been well conditioned on just quality hay and ok pasture. She is a Milking Shorthorn/ Jersey cross. I am calf sharing, but I estimate she is giving about 5 gallons a day. So I figured when she calved here, she would start to shape up a little. I did start feeding her grain for stanchion training purposes since she is quite High strung. She is a large cow and she needs to go in the stnachion without fuss the way I have things set up. Anyways, so she's been getting about 3-4#, twice a day. Of a sweet feed, 16%. I was getting a nice simple corn/oats mix at the feed mill but since my other cow is gone, I can't use up 300# fast enough so I'm at the mercy of whatever fleet farm has available.
I feel like she is getting too much grain and that is contributing to her continued chunkiness. But on the other hand, she also needs energy to keep up milking and positive energy balance. I was thinking of cutting her grain down to 2# twice a day and go from there for the summer. I don't necessarily want her to lose weight, especially since we have harsh winters but with it being summer now, she is likely to gain condition on pasture and she does NOT need to be any fatter!
Thoughts??
Looking at BCS, I'd say she's a solid 3.5 if not a 4. Her pins and tailhead have a solid pad of fat on them as well as her hips. No bones to be seen. I can see her ribs, again, some cover on them. Her front end is solid and I can sometimes not get the stanchion closed if she is too far forward in it cuz her neck is thick.
She also is a large boned cow, she has little dairy character and most likely will always hold condition well. So I'm not trying to thin her out, just hold her condition from getting too fat.
** I can certainly add pictures if that would help but would need to email them to someone or message on FB to someone to post them here. I cannot post pics here.
I feel like she is getting too much grain and that is contributing to her continued chunkiness. But on the other hand, she also needs energy to keep up milking and positive energy balance. I was thinking of cutting her grain down to 2# twice a day and go from there for the summer. I don't necessarily want her to lose weight, especially since we have harsh winters but with it being summer now, she is likely to gain condition on pasture and she does NOT need to be any fatter!
Thoughts??
Looking at BCS, I'd say she's a solid 3.5 if not a 4. Her pins and tailhead have a solid pad of fat on them as well as her hips. No bones to be seen. I can see her ribs, again, some cover on them. Her front end is solid and I can sometimes not get the stanchion closed if she is too far forward in it cuz her neck is thick.
She also is a large boned cow, she has little dairy character and most likely will always hold condition well. So I'm not trying to thin her out, just hold her condition from getting too fat.
** I can certainly add pictures if that would help but would need to email them to someone or message on FB to someone to post them here. I cannot post pics here.