Whether it is for people or for animals, most people know that proper nutrition is important to stay healthy.
Nutrition can also be a powerful tool to foster enhanced immunity and fertility in herds, which leads to a better bottom line.
Immunity
An animal’s immune system is designed to defend the animal against disease-causing microorganisms. If their immune system is compromised or weakened, it can spell disaster for the animal, and ultimately the producer’s profits. But an adequate nutrition program can strengthen a herd’s immune systems, and help them better fight against illness.
According to an article by Harvard Health Publications, the immune system army marches on its stomach. Healthy immune system warriors need good, regular nourishment.
The article went on to state that there is some evidence that various micronutrient deficiencies – for example, deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E – alter immune responses in animals, as measured in the test tube. However, the impact of these immune system changes on the health of animals is less clear, and the effect of similar deficiencies on the human immune response has yet to be assessed. But the research at this stage is promising, at least for some of the micronutrients.
The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service notes that vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin E, selenium, copper and zinc, when properly supplemented, can enhance a cow’s immunity against diseases, such as mastitis, by increasing resistance to infections and by decreasing severity of infections when they do occur.
Herds’ needs will differ depending on age, reproductive stages and available feed and forages, so it is recommended that producers contact their veterinarian to create a program specific for their farm.
Fertility
Proper nutrition can also be utilized to enhance the fertility rates, but it requires some forethought throughout the entire life of your cattle. According to Grass Fed Solutions, the Online Source to Low-Cost Pasture-Based Cattle Farming, beef cattle fertility and milk production potential is shaped to a large degree by the body fat levels of bull and heifer calves during their adolescent sexual development.
What is done in the pasture or feedyard during cattle’s adolescence has as much impact on lifelong fertility and milk production potential as the sum of all the other genetic factors that are normally considered when selecting cattle breeding stock. Too much body fat during the adolescent sexual development stage will prevent growing cattle from achieving the maximum beef cattle fertility and milk producing potential written into their genetic DNA.
The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation suggests that inadequate nutrition is also the most common cause of delayed breeding among mature cows. A reproductively efficient cow should calve every 12 months. But in order for her to accomplish this feat, she must breed back within 80 days of calving. Any nutritional stress from late gestation until breeding can lengthen the postpartum interval. Cows should be in good flesh at calving and maintain this condition through the breeding season. Cows that are thin at the time of calving and those that lose body condition from calving to the onset of breeding will either breed late or end up open at the end of the season.
