It’s the season to switch dairy herds from pastures to winter feed, and that transition is best managed in stages, according to Reagan Bluel, University of Missouri Extension dairy specialist based in Barry County.
But the first thing dairy producers should do, Bluel told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, is to determine just when that switch should be made. “You need to know your goals long term and know how much grass is left,” she said. “Are you stockpiling that paddock, or are you going to go ahead and graze it one more time? Once you figure out your forage and pasture goals you can decide what is remaining, and that will give you a calendar of how much time you have left to graze.”
When it’s time to move to winter feed, the microorganisms in the rumen will need to transition to the roughage they’re receiving in the stored feed, and the dynamics associated with moving from grass to a silage and hay diet can take time. You don’t want your lactating dairy cows to be interrupted in their production, so make the transition in small steps. “Transitioning a cow in a two-week period would be perfect,” Bluel said, “but even just a few days could help.”
Start the transition by giving the cows about 25 percent of their ration as silage; give it to them slowly, since if they still have good pasture, they won’t be very interested in silage. “You have to encourage them to eat it at slow rates,” she said. “That way you don’t wind up wasting any silage, and the cows won’t get put off by spoiled silage. You want to give them just what they’ll eat that day.”
Ideally, the portion of winter feed would then be bumped up to 50 percent, 75 percent, and finally the full ration. But you could even go directly to 75 percent, and then 100 percent. “If it goes smoothly over a long enough period of time then her intake won’t fluctuate, and intake is directly correlated with milk production,” Bluel said. “Those microorganisms in the rumen can then adapt to digest the feed that you’re offering.” If the dairy cow is having trouble transitioning you’ll notice that she’ll slow down in her eating, and may then segregate herself from the group. Milk production can begin declining as early as the first 24 hours.
Producers also need to decide whether or not they’re going to stockpile forage in preparation for the spring, and perform pasture management tasks associated with forage growth such as liming or fertilizing the soils. Dr. John Jennings, University of Arkansas Extension forage specialist, said dairy producers can also choose to plant winter annuals. “Wheat, ryegrass, triticale, cereal rye – even oats can make some very effective fall and early spring forages,” Jennings told OFN. “They can be grazed in the fall; they can be cut in the spring for hay or haylage, or they can still be grazed. We’ve also had good luck with planting forage brassicas like turnips and rape; those types of plants make very good fall pasture, very cost effective, a fairly low cost seeding rate, and very easy to establish.”
Jennings said the nutritional value of winter annual forages in the vegetative stage is generally higher than the animal’s needs; dairy producers just have to balance the ration to make sure they have the right energy and protein components. He said, “They need to have the forages up to about a 6-8 inches of height before they turn in to graze, and then don’t graze them shorter than 3-4 inches to make sure there’s enough leaf area remaining in the field, so they’ll regrow quickly.”
