With the New Year starting, we are hoping it will be a great and profitable year for all of us in agriculture. Along with hope, we need a little assurance, which takes planning. We need to look at what we want to do with our animals to make them more profitable.
The first thing is to take an inventory of the animals we have and what feed we have for them. Right now we need to be feeding our cows to maintain, if their body condition is where we need it. For this, I would be feeding the medium quality hay and only supplementing the ones that need it for better body condition. Spend your money only where you need to.
Thin cows may need to be separated from the others that are not thin and fed extra calories. Yes, I said calories and not protein. Cattle will make their own protein if given enough carbohydrates or energy and nitrogen. This is what a functioning rumen does.
Then when your cows are calving, feed your best quality hay. This will help them the most and put more milk in their bag for the calf. As a rule of thumb, a female takes two times the nutrition to be late term pregnant and three times the nutrition to be lactating or feeding a baby. Plus, while she is feeding that baby we would like her to breed back for the next year’s calf. Hopefully, by this time we will have grass up and taking care of the nutrition of our cow herds.
And to prevent diseases from entering our herds we will need to plan on working them sometime between calving and breeding. We will also need to deworm at this time. Just watch the handling, if they require refrigeration and/or kept out of the light. Proper handling will ensure that the products will do what they are suppose to by manufacturer’s label. And all Ivermectin type dewormers are very sensitive to light, they must all be kept out of the light and not frozen. This includes Ivomec (generic and real), Dectomax, Eprinex; injectable and pour on.
Last but not the least, is to plan your mineral supplementation. This time of the year I recommend a mineral with 10 percent Mag in it for protection against grass tetany. We need to feed this 10 percent Mag mineral until we are through the flush of grass, generally in May. Then we can go to 2 percent Mag mineral until Christmas or the first of the year. And I like loose mineral fed year round. You can put out fresh mineral twice weekly while checking your cattle. This insures that they always have fresh mineral and will keep you apprised of how much they are eating, while not wasting any.
Dr. Tim E. O’Neill, DMV, owns Country Veterinary Service in Farmington, Ark.
