What is the best feed for heifers?
Feed high-quality grass or hay, Accuration® Liquid Supplement or Accuration® Hi-Fat Block, and Wind and Rain® Storm® Cattle Mineral. Set replacement heifers up to take the place of existing females and be better than your current cow herd. By putting a total program together, you’re not leaving anything to chance.
How much feed does a heifer need?
Feeding 4 to 6 pounds of grain and letting the heifer have free-choice access to alfalfa hay should result in 2.0 to 2.5 lb/day gain. No supplemental protein, vitamins, or mineral will be required.
What do heifer cows eat?
After weaning, cattle are fed hay, silage, grain and food processing by-products such as cottonseed meal, citrus pulp, tomato pulp, potato peels, sugar beet pulp, almond hulls, cereal by-products, soy hulls, or canola seed hulls. Most cattle feed is produced on non-irrigated land.
What do you feed a first heifer calf?
Supplement first-calf heifers with grains (energy) like corn, corn silage, or barley before they lose body condition. “Thin heifers don’t breed back quickly, if at all,” says Bjurstrom. “If she rebreeds late, it will take several lactations to get her back on track with the rest of the herd.
How much grain should I feed my heifer a day?
Based on research ADG of Holstein heifers should be 1.75 to 2.00 pounds per day. Weighing heifers is a relatively simple means to monitor animal performance, and this practice is a must for precision feeding dairy heifers successfully.
How much grain should I feed my bred heifer?
Total intake of hay and distillers would be about 24 lb/hd/da as-fed. After calving using the same hay you would need feed 4.2 lb/hd/da (3.7 lb/hd/da dry matter and distillers 88% dry matter). Intake after calving would be 25 to 26 lb/hd/da as-fed. The lactating diet will be about 12% CP and 62% TDN.
Can cows eat just hay?
Forage. When available, unlimited pasture access is the best feeding option for cows. If lush pasture is not available, farmers feed hay. Hay is generally dried and baled grass, legume or straw according to Hobby Farms website.
What food do cows need?
So, what do cows eat? To be healthy and provide humans with quality meat or milk, cows must eat up to 100 pounds of feed per day, consisting mainly of hay (dried grass or alfalfa), pastures grasses, silage (fermented grasses, alfalfa, or corn), and byproduct feeds (soybean meal, brewers grains, or corn gluten feed).
How much should I feed my first calf heifer?
A first-calf heifer at peak lactation is going to require at least 58 percent total digestible nutrients (TDN) and 9.3 percent crude protein (CP) in her diet just to maintain what she has. If she needs to gain some weight before breeding, she will probably need at least a 65 percent TDN and 12.1 percent CP diet.
How many bales of hay does a cow need a day?
A 1200-pound cow, ready for processing, will require 36 pounds of forage per day based on the formula used here. Thirty-six pounds of hay is close to one small square bale of hay per day, taking into consideration some waste.
How much protein does a heifer need?
During the growth phase of heifer development, that heifer requires 1.3 lb of crude protein per day, and 15.6 Mcal of energy per day (based on NRC requirements). If in our example heifers are weaned in the fall (spring calving herd), the forage available would typically be mature or processed winter forage.
How much should I feed my first-calf heifer?