Is meal-feeding necessary for suckler cows before calving?
The topic of meal feeding to suckler cows in advance of calving was highlighted on a recent Teagasc webinar focused on pre-calving management of the suckler cow.
During the webinar, Teagasc Future Beef Advisor Aisling Molloy emphasised the importance of feeding a good-quality dry cow mineral to suckler cows in advance of calving.
Teagasc's David Kenny was asked if there is any need to feed supplementary concentrates to cows in advance of calving, assuming the cows' Body Condition Score (BCS) is okay.
Responding to this, Kenny said "There's no need for any supplementary meal or concentrate to be fed if the BCS is okay. The key one is if you had silage or hay that was very low in protein.
"It's important that you have a minimum amount of amino acids or protein in the diet in the run up to calving when that colostrum is being produced. It's absolutely key for the viability of the calf particularly its immune function and its health in those weeks and months after birth."
"I think it's really just the protein not so much the energy level obviously that's based on the cow being in good condition," he emphasised.
The Teagasc advisor said: "You don't want to contribute to over fatness in the cow or indeed greater growth in the calf because the calf could be growing up to 1kg /day in the last few weeks before it's born but most of that comes from nutrients that the cow breaks down from her own fat reserves."
The Teagasc Grange advisor was asked what can farmers do where they have low-protein silage.
Kenny said that in the case of low-protein silage, "soya bean meal on its' own" could be fed "to try to ensure there's sufficient protein and good quality amino acids in the overall diet".
"We see the same thing with sheep. Animals that have a severe deficiency in protein and amino acids not alone have they lower colostrum content but it can potentially lead to oedema or flagging in the udder and it's harder to milk them so it's that balance between not overfeeding them but just making sure they're getting sufficient protein in the diet."
Commenting on the amount of protein to feed suckler cows, Kenny said: "Soya is roughly half its content is protein so about 48% is really high-quality protein so 1kg of soya would be giving you almost 0.5kg of protein.
"Again it depends what's the gap you need to fill and what concentrates are they getting along with that."
Part two of the webinar took place on Thursday, January 23, and focused on calving and post-calving management of the suckler cow.
