The dairy cow is like a machine that converts raw materials (feed and water) into milk.

The raw materials mainly plant materials that are not edible by humans but the cow is able to convert into high quality human food.

Qualities of a good dairy cow

Though milk production may not be 100% related to the external appearance of a dairy cow, there are some physical features related to milk yield and the longevity (length of time animal is productive) of the animal in the herd.

These features are commonly used in judging the suitability of a dairy cow from its external appearance.

These characteristics should be considered by a farmer while buying, selling, or selecting a replacement for dairy animals.

Cow as a milk factory

A dairy cow can be compared with a factory. The raw materials that go into milk manufacturing are the feeds consumed by the cow.

To get more milk, feed the cow on good quality feed in large quantities. The size of the factory can be compared to the size of the cow where a large factory will hold more raw materials, so will a large cow have a larger rumen.

Feed is converted into milk by the digestive system (stomachs and intestines) and the mammary gland.

All cows can be assumed to have a similar digestive system but the capacity of the mammary gland will vary depending on size of udder and number of milk making units (alveolar cells) which are determined by the genetics of the cow.

A conducive environment is required for them to function (the cow must be comfortable and free from pain), just like the workers in a factory.

Feeding

The aim of feeding of dairy cows is to maximize milk yield (by meeting cow’s feed requirements) and to maintain the cow in good health.

Character Description Desired Size

Size Stature (height in cm at rump or withers)

  • Jersey=120,
  • Guernsey=125,
  • Ayrshire=130,
  • Friesian=135

Chest width Distance between the two front legs Should be large to give room for the heart and lungs

Rump width Distance between the pin bones Should be big to ease calving and allow wide rear udder attachment.

Rib structure: ribs wide apart, rib bones wide, flat and long and free from excess flesh.

Neck: long, lean and blending smoothly into shoulders Barrel: width tending to increase towards rear.

Rump Angle (pelvic angle) Angle from hooks to pins.

Pins should be slightly lower than hooks (about 1 inch). Improper angle can hinder reproductive performance and mobility.

Top line (backline) Level of backbone from shoulders to pelvis Should be strong and level.

Udder Fore udder attachment Fore udder attachment Attachment of fore udder to trunk should be almost level. Udder depth Distance between bottom of udder and ground in relation to height. Should be shallow and above the hock.

Deep udder is prone to injury. Consider age and stage of lactation. Rear udder height Distance between the vulva and udder fold Should be attached high.

Udder suspension Udder cleft – suspensory ligament. Should be clearly visible and continue upwards.

Should be strong to keep udder firm and prevent teats from pointing outwards

Teat placement

Direction of teats Should point straight down or slightly inwards (for ease of milking) Teat length 5cm ideal is for machine milking, but slightly longer for hand milking.

Legs and Feet Rear leg set Angle at hock viewed from side should not be straight. Ideally, pin bone, hock and dew claw should be in one line.

Should be straight from the rear. Hoof diagonal Distance between point of toe and top of heel. Intermediate desirable.

Characteristics used in judging dairy cattle

Nutritional requirements Proper feeding is essential to ensure animals receive adequate nutrients for maintenance and production, and remain healthy and in good body condition.

Dairy cattle must eat a balanced diet. Too little (or poor-quality feed) results in thin animals that cannot resist disease while giving too much feed is wasteful and does not make economic sense.

Lack of essential nutrients will result in ill-health, failure to reach full production potential and sometimes death.

For cattle, the basic types of ingredients needed are shown

• Macro ingredients.

Energy supplies the body’s fuel allowing the animal to move, keep warm, stay alive and be productive.

Energy feeds are the main part of the diet.

Protein helps young animals to grow and develop strong muscles and enables cows to produce healthy calves and adequate milk.

• Micro ingredients.

Minerals and vitamins are required in small amounts and fulfill a variety of functions, including forming strong bones and maintaining the reproductive system.

Nutrient requirements

A dairy cow, like all other animals requires energy, protein, minerals and vitamins which must be provided in the diet.

Feeds supplying different types of nutrients

Type of nutrients

Energy

Bulk forages and pastures – grass, hay, straw, stovers Cereal by-products (maize, maize bran and maize germ, Wheat, pollard, wheat bran, rice bran and rice polishing)

Root crops – cassava chips Oil seed products Molasses Fat

Protein

Legume crops and forages – desmodium, sweet potato vines or calliandra leaves Plant by-products:

Mostly from extracted oil seeds (cotton seed cake, sunflower cake, soybean cake), copra cake, groundnut cake Animal origin: Fish meal Non protein nitrogen sources (NPN): Urea, poultry litter*

Vitamins

Vitamin supplements Made in rumen by micro-organisms

Minerals

Forages Mineral licks Salt

*Poultry litter should be properly dried and sieved to minimise amount of sawdust. Non-protein sources are converted into protein by micro-organisms in the digestive system

Types of feed

Balanced diets for cattle are made of the following:

Bulk feeds

Bulk feeds Also known as basal feeds, these are fibrous plants known as forages and include grass, hay, straw and stovers (stems and leaves of tall cereals such as maize and sorghum).

They provide most of the energy and bulk an animal needs and will make up most of the diet.

Most contain only low or medium levels of protein. Forage forms up to 30-70% of the diet, depending on level of productivity.

Using a feed trough helps to make forage accessible without wastage.

Supplementary feeds

These are feeds with a higher concentration of energy or protein or both, i.e. more nutrients per volume or weight of feed compared to forages.

Certain forages (e.g. legumes), commercial dairy concentrates and cereal by-products are high in protein.

They are fed in relatively small amounts together with the bulk feeds and are most often fed to productive animals such as lactating or pregnant cows.

Protein feed should not exceed 30% of total feed since proteins cannot be stored in the body and will be In addition, extra energy is (which would otherwise be used for milk production) is used to remove the extra protein (nitrogen) from the body in form of urea in the urine.

Recommended crude protein levels in dairy cattle diets

Milk yield (kg/day)                           10  15  20  25  30

% Crude protein in whole ration 13  15  16  17   18

Minerals

Dairy cattle require at least 17 minerals and three vitamins in their diet for optimal milk production, reproductive performance, and herd health.

Although classical mineral or vitamin deficiency symptoms are rare, in many cases under- and overfeeding of certain minerals and vitamins does occur.

Even small imbalances or deficiencies can develop into reproductive, health, and milk production problems.

As herd milk production increases, it becomes more critical to balance and fine-tune the dairy herd’s mineral and vitamin feeding program.

Generally, the two sources of minerals include natural feeds (forages and grains) and mineral supplements to balance the minerals present in the forages and grains.

Minerals can be fed using several methods.

Force Feeding.

This is a recommended way of feeding minerals to dairy cows as it eliminates  palatability problems, daily and cow-to-cow variation in intake, and overconsumption of minerals.

The optimal method of force-feeding is in a total mixed ration.

Another commonly used method of force-feeding is use of a grain carrier.

Free Choice.

This method is not as accurate as force-feeding, and only trace mineralized salt should be fed free choice.

Topdressing.

This method is used often in stall fed cows where individual feeding practiced.

Vitamins

Vitamins fall into two groups: fat soluble and water soluble. The water soluble vitamins are synthesized in the rumen thus only the fat soluble (A, D, E) are required in the diet.

Vitamin K is not required in the ration because it is synthesized in the rumen.

 

Water

Although water is not a nutrient as such, it is essential for life.Water can be obtained from feed and/or drinking. Lactating cows need larger proportions of water relative to body weight than most livestock species since 87% of milk is water.

The amount required depends mainly on milk yield, water content of feed, amount of feed consumed, salt content of feed and the environmental temperature.

Except for high moisture content, an increase in the other factors increases water requirement. Cows will drink more water if it is availed at all times and when warm water is offered on cold days.

Dairy cows suffer from a limited intake of water more quickly and severely than from a deficiency of any other dietary nutrient.

Lack of water has a big effect on feed intake (especially if the feed is low in moisture) and thus on milk yield.

Balanced Ration

During formulation of dairy cow rations, the daily requirements for all the above nutrients must be taken into consideration.

The available feed resources should then be mixed to meet the cow’s nutrient requirements, which are dependent on bodyweight, milk yield, reproductive (pregnancy) requirements and growth.

A balanced ration will consist of combined feed ingredients which will be consumed in amounts needed to supply the daily nutrient requirements of the cow, both in correct proportion and amount.

A ration will be balanced when all the required nutrients are present in feed eaten by the cow during a 24hr period.

Balancing a ration for animals that are not confined (grazing) is a difficult task since grazing animals can choose how much to graze and can select while grazing to improve the quality.

Under these circumstances, amount of supplementation can only be estimated depending on quantity quality of the available pasture.

When a ration is not balanced, the cow eats some nutrients in excess or in insufficient amounts.

Some excesses and deficiencies, if not checked, can lead to death (eg calcium deficiency resulting in milk fever).

However, some imbalances are difficult to identify because they result in some degree of loss thus not permitting the cow to exploit its genetic potential.

A properly balanced ration will therefore be a mixture of all the ingredients.

Total mixed ration

Total mixed ration (TMR) is a feeding method that helps achieve the mixing of a balanced ration.

Total Mixed Rations (TMR) TMR is defined as a mixture of all diet ingredients (roughage, concentrates, mineral supplements and additives) formulated to contain specific amount of nutrients, mixed thoroughly to prevent separation and fed at free will to the cow.

To formulate a total mixed ration, the following information is required:

Feeds (ingredients):

Nutrient composition (can be obtained from laboratory analysis or estimated from text book values) and cost.

Cow:

Body weight, expected milk yield and estimated amount of feed the cow can consume in one day.

This allows the formulator to ensure that all the required nutrients are included in the amount of feed that can be consumed in one day.

The formulation should be done by a qualified person for the different groups of animals on the farm based on each group’s requirements.

As much as possible locally available feeds should be utilized.

The TMR feeding regime has several advantages compared to feeding ingredients separately as cows are able to consume high amount of feed especially in early lactation when high intakes are helpful and increase milk yields.

TMR also allows greater accuracy in ration formulation and energy and protein are used more efficiently by rumen bacteria resulting in higher production.

Use of TMR improves milk fat test, minimises digestive upsets, eliminates need for minerals supplements, allows use of less palatable ingredients and eliminates need for concentrate feeding at milking.

For the implementation of a good TMR program, there will be need for weighing equipment, estimation of dry matter content of ingredients and a qualified nutritionist to formulate the ration.

Practical feeding

During the formulation of rations for lactating dairy cows, the quality of the ration should be commensurate with the requirements of the cow.

The requirement is directly related to the milk yield, which is in turn dependent on the stage of lactation.

As such, cows in early lactation will require more nutrients compared to those in late lactation.

Since it is not practically possible to formulate a separate ration for each cow, the cows should be fed in groups (strings) with common nutrient requirements.

Cows in the same stage of lactation will have almost similar requirements and can therefore the rations can be formulated according to the phase (stage) of lactation.

Phase 1: (1-70 days)

During this phase, milk production increases more rapidly than feed intake resulting in higher energy demand than intake leading to a negative energy balance.

This results in mobilisation and use of body reserves and loss in body weight (negative energy).

The energy is mobilised from fat reserves, protein from muscle and calcium and phosphorus from bones.

However, energy is most limiting. The health and nutrition of the cow during this phase is critical and affects the entire lactation performance.

The cow is expected to achieve peak production during this phase, failure to which the lactation milk yield is reduced.

Excessive weight loss may be detrimental to cow’s health and reproductive performance (cow may not come on heat at the optimum time) leading to long calving intervals.

Concentrates should be added to the basal diet to increase the energy and protein content as forage alone will not be sufficient.

Cows that are poorly fed during this early phase do not attain peak yield and milk production drops from week 1.

If excessive concentrates are added too rapidly (non-accustomed cows) to the ration, they can lead to digestive disturbances (rumen acidosis, loss of appetite, reduced milk production, low milk fat content).

It is therefore recommended that concentrates should be limited to 50-60% of diet dry matter, the rest being forage to ensure rumination (proper function of the rumen).

If high amounts of concentrate are fed during this time buffers (chemicals that reduce the acid in the rumen and available commercially) can be helpful.

At this stage, high protein content is important since the body cannot mobilise all the needed protein and bacteria protein (synthesized in the rumen by bacteria) can only partially meet requirements.

A ration with protein content of 18%CP is recommended for high yielding cows.

If the cow is underfed during this stage, milk production cannot recover even when balanced rations are fed at later stages.

This is attributed to the fact that cows in later stages of lactation use energy more efficiently to restore body reserves than for milk synthesis.

It should be noted that cows come on first heat during this phase and regaining a positive energy balance is critical in achieving this.

Phase 2: (70-150ds)

During this phase the dry matter intake is adequate to support milk production and either maintain or slightly increase body weight. Feeding should be to maintain production peak as long as possible.

Decline of 8-10%/month in milk production are common after peaking. The forage quality should still be high and a CP content of 15-18%.

Concentrates high in digestible fibre (rather than starch) e.g. wheat or maize bran can be used as energy source.

Phase 3: (151-305ds)

During this phase feed intake and milk production decline. The feed intake meets energy requirements for milk production, restoration of body reserves and body weight increases.

The body weight increase is due to replenishment of body reserves and, towards the end of lactation, due to increased growth of foetus.

It has been shown that it is more efficient to replenish body weight during late lactation than during the dry period.

The animals can be fed on lower quality roughage and limited amounts of concentrate compared to the other two phases.

Phase 4: (Dry Period: 305-365ds)

During this phase the cow continues to gain weight primarily due to weight of foetus.

Proper feeding of cow during this stage will help realise the cow’s potential during next lactation and minimise health problems at calving time (milk fever and ketosis).

At the time of drying, cows should be fed a ration to cater for maintenance and pregnancy but two weeks before calving, the cow should be fed on concentrates in preparation for next lactation.

This extra concentrate (steaming) enables the cow to store some reserves to be used in early lactation and to adapt rumen microbial population to digest concentrates in early lactation to minimise digestive disturbances.

During this phase the cow can be fed good quality forage or poor quality supplemented with concentrate to provide 12% CP.

The cows should not be fed high amounts of concentrate to avoid over conditioning. If the diet is rich in energy, intake should be limited.

Bulky roughages can be fed to help increase rumen size to accommodate more feed at parturition.

The amount of calcium and phosphorous fed should be restricted during the dry period to 0.4% and 0.25% to minimise incidences of milk fever.

Guidelines for concentrate feeding

There are several types of commercial concentrates available in the market for feeding dairy cows, the most common being ‘Dairy Meal®’.

Concentrates can also be home made using locally available ingredients. It should be noted that feedstuffs available in the market e.g. bran (wheat or maize), pollard or maize germ are not similar to the mixed concentrate as they are low in protein and minerals and should be used in combination with other ingredients when supplementing forages.

The maximum amount of milk that can be produced without concentrate supplementation will depend on the quality of the pasture or forage.

This has been reported to vary from 7-20 kg milk per day. Several guidelines have been suggested on the amount of concentrate that should be fed to a cow.

The only accurate one is the one calculated based on the cow’s nutrient requirements and the quality of the basal diet by a nutritionist.

The example below is one of the many guidelines.

Guideline 1

Friesian: Yield (kg/day)             kg  milk/kg concentrate

<18                                                   4:1

18-30                                               3:1

>30                                                   2.5:1

Jersey/ Guernsey/ Ayrshire

<13                                                  3:1

13-28                                               2.5:1

28 kg                                                2:1

Up to 7 kg of milk comes from the basal forage diet For every extra 1.5 kg milk above 7 kg, give 1 kg dairy meal

Challenge feeding:

The lactating cow is given increasing amounts of concentrate as long as it continues to respond by increased milk production (has been referred to as lead feeding as the cow is led to produce more milk).

This can be recommended only if the extra milk produced can offset the added cost of the concentrate.

Note:

Since underfeeding in early lactation can result in reduced milk production throughout lactation and delayed coming on heat, it is advisable for farmers who have limited resources to buy concentrates to feed more in early lactation and none towards the end of lactation.

Body Condition:

Body conditioning of dairy cows can be used to assess the feeding regimes in dairy cattle.

Body condition scoring can be carried out by the farmer through initial training and gets more accurate with experience.

Several systems have been suggested but the 1-5 scoring has been the most used.

The animals are scored based on the protrusion of the hooks (tuber coxae) and the pins (tuber ischii) and the depression under the tail head

Body Condition Score 1 Rump Area:

  • Deep cavity around tail head.
  • No fatty tissue felt between pins.
  • Hooks are prominent.
  • Pelvic bone easily felt.
  • Skin is loose.

Body Condition Score 2 Rump Area:

  • Shallow cavity lined with fatty tissue at tail head.
  • Some fatty tissue felt under pin bone.
  • Pelvis easily felt.
  • High-producing, early lactation cows should score 2.

Body Condition Score 3 Rump Area:

  • No visible cavity around tail head.
  • Fatty tissue is easily felt over whole rump.
  • Skin appears smooth.
  • Pelvis is felt with slight pressure.
  • Pins and hooks not prominent

Body Condition Score 4 Rump Area:

  • Folds of fatty tissue are visible around tail head.
  • Patches of fat are present around the pin bones.
  • Pelvis is felt only with firm pressure.

Body Condition Score 5 Rump Area:

  • Tail head is buried in fatty tissue.
  • Skin is distended.
  • No part of pelvis can be felt even with firm pressure.
  • These cows can easily get the condition fat cow syndrome.

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