Protein and Energy Imbalances in Ruminants

Factors of productitivty
1. genetics
2. feed
  1. fibre should be between 2-4 cm
  2. total mixed ration is everything
  3. asses if the cows really eat it all
  4. silage is anaerobic
    1. goes off when exposed
    2. mould makes toxins
  5. grass nutritional content changes throughout the year
    1. fore cows go out onto grass always give buffer feed
      1. reduce bloat
3. environment
  1. at least 60cm trough space per cow
  2. make sure its not too sharp
4. management
  1. cows need to be lying down between 18 hours
  2. good to work out their time budget
    1. make sure they're not disturbed too much
      1. cow comfort index, % lying down 1 hour before milking
  3. good to split up dry cows into close (<14 days) and far off
5. disease
milk
1. milk fat should be around 4.2%
  1. the higher the concentrate relative to fibre, the more the fat
  2. spring grass low in fibre
  3. low milk fat may show SARA
  4. great variation within herd masks the indiviuals
2. milk protein should be around 3.4%
  1. will drop with poor feed
  2. hard to correct fast
on farm investigations
1. dung scoring
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
2. BCS is essential
  1. take at different stages of cow
  2. keep around 3
    1. will drop in high lactation
    2. push too high and increase fatty liver diease
metabolic profiles
1. split into 3 groups
  1. 10-20 days post calving
  2. 100 days in
  3. dry cows within 14 days of calving
  4. don't do post 20 days
  5. at least 6 from each group
  6. after big change wait 10 days
  7. use average cows, not big issue ones

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Protein and Energy Imbalances in Ruminants

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	Created by Seth Kennard over 8 years ago