monitor your cattles energy balance

[chalice]

Watch a couple of videos on how to monitor your cows energy balance and body condition score. www.onestoplivestock.ca.

[grassfarmer]

Or if you have cows you can do it for real.

[chalice]

GF not everyone is an expert like you. Some of us still realize we can learn something.

[rkaiser]

The one on the right would winter well but the one on the left could use a bit more carbs.

[Happytrails]

Good info especially the cow pies indicating the ration quality. I think their taller cowpies were OK for wintering cows but just. As far as BCS it is too late now to fatten up your cows. However I believe a thin cow that is gaining condition after calving will breed OK and maybe better than a fatter cow that is on poorer feed. Back in the dark ages we would feed barley chop to the herd for AI'ing. My point is that the nutrition level after calving is crucial. HT

[per]

If they have both had the same amount of feed and the same conditions you would have to consider culling the one on the left. For sure there could be a several hour conversation around this topic.

[grassfarmer]

Oh I don't consider myself an expert and realise I've lots to learn on lots of topics. This is pretty basic stuff though for anyone with any experience of feeding pregnant cattle through to calving. It's a bit like the Cattleman magazine "calving edition" where you get all the wonderous tips from guys with 16 cows and 3 years experience.

[rkaiser]

This could be fun Phil.

Even though the one on the right is a little fuller, he is still holding his belly like he is hungry. Wish they would take their caps off so we could see how far forward their hair swirl is. My guess is that it is father down the middle of their backs like mine. According to Gearld Fry, the location of the swirl not only tells us the marbling capabilities, but the butterfat content as well. Don't know if it tells us anything about the alcohol content in the beers the one on the right drank last weekend.

Come on chalice lighten up on old GF.

Or maybe you could help Phil and I out with some evaluations instead of being so serious all the time grassfarmer.

[chalice]

Actually,I have it on good authority that the grain consumed by the one on the right has been fermented and spent about 12 years in an oak barrel.

[per]

Is there a correlation to the number of years the grain spent in the Oak barrel to the quality of the the carbs or is it just a palatability issue increasing the consumption.

[chalice]

Strictly palatability.

[chalice]

All joking aside, I have euthanized 40- 50 down cows in the last 4-6 weeks in my practise area. This would tell me that there are probably at least 2-3X that many out there. These are all bigger producers trying to get by on poorer quality hay and just feeding more of it. Coupled with a tougher than usual winter, producers working off farm and a few other factors there are some real wrecks going on out there. When one producer I was working with called the feed mill for pellets he was told that that was their 12th call that day related to downer cows.
That is why we did the video. Even though it is very basic, sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a refresher course.
I fully agree with HT that post partum/pre-breeding nutrition is crucial to get cows to breedback. In this cold country it is cheaper to get a cow into a 3 to 3 1/2 and keep her there than ride the roller coaster.