dairy Archives | Page 2 of 3 | Midwestern BioAg

Cleanliness on the Farm | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition, Dairy Production

The best way to prevent cattle from catching illnesses and diseases is cleanliness. Keeping cattle clean starts with their bedding. Nice, dry, clean bedding prevents the cattle’s coat from being covered in manure and mud. Many benefits come from clean, dry bedding as the insulation properties of the cattle’s hair coats are enhanced due to them being clean and maintained. In cold weather, a clean cow coat helps cattle use less energy to stay warm, and more energy goes into immune function growth.

Are Your Forages the Best They Can Be?

By: Midwestern BioAg Staff · Forages, Bio-Cal®, Dairy Production, Calcium

After your forages are harvested is a good time for you and your BioAg consultant to evaluate your forage program and your crop ration.
Evaluate Your Forage
It takes some time to evaluate what you have for forages and to what groups of animals they would best be fed. Some dairy producers have had the experience of feeding more alternative annual forage varieties due to the improved crop rotation and soil health. These dairy producers have been pleasantly surprised by the digestibility of their crops if …

Milk Fever | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition

Milk Fever
Milk fever, also known as hypocalcemia is a common bovine metabolic disorder resulting from calcium deficiency. Cows usually experience milk fever when approaching calving or just after calving. Calcium demand for a cow starting lactation is almost double compared to when she was not lactating and pregnant. Around calving, blood-calcium levels may drop below the normal range leading to homeostatic failure.
Calcium deficiency results in:

Reduced smooth muscle tone and contractility of the gastrointestinal tract and the cardiovascular
Reduced muscle …

Ketosis | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition

Ketosis
Ketosis is a metabolic disorder that occurs in cattle when energy demands (e.g. high milk production) exceed energy intake and result in a negative energy balance. Negative energy balance occurs when the cow is mobilizing body fat (condition) faster than the liver is able to metabolize it. In order for the liver to normally metabolize that fat, glucose is required. If glucose availability is limited due to inadequate substrate or glucose production via glycogenesis is inadequate or impaired, then ketosis can result because of the …

Selenium | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition, Newsletters

Selenium
Selenium is an essential trace element for ruminants. It is required in cattle for normal growth and fertility and for helping to prevent other health disorders such as mastitis and calf scours. Many pastures are short in natural selenium levels. Therefore, cattle should be supplemented with selenium. The level of selenium in the pasture is dependent on the level of selenium in the soil. Pastures have the lowest levels of selenium occurring in the spring and summer.

Mastitus | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition

Mastitus
Summer heat and humidity can create the ideal environment for mastitis-causing pathogens to grow. In addition, intense heat can cause the cow to become stressed which results in lowering the immune system function. These two factors together create the perfect storm for mastitis to take a toll on the herd.
Bovine mastitis is the most costly disease for dairy producers. Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland that is usually caused by bacteria that enter the gland through the teat end.

Rotational Grazing | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition

Rotational Grazing
More than one-quarter of the Midwest’s agricultural land is in some form of pasture. Rotational grazing is where one part of the pasture is grazed at a time, while the remainder pastures “rest”. Resting grazed paddocks allows forage plants to renew energy reserves, rebuild vigor, deepen their roots system, and give long-term maximum production. Below is the relationship between the number of paddocks and the rest period per acre.For optimum production, pastures should be grazed about a week before the grass heads out (goes …

Hoof Care | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition, Newsletters, Dairy Production

It is estimated that approximately 20% of lameness in cattle – dairy and beef is attributed to foot rot. Foot rot is an infectious condition that causes swelling, heat, and inflammation in cattle’s feet, resulting in severe lameness. Bacteria are responsible for causing foot rot. Fusobacterium necrphorum is the main foot rot causing bacterium. All the foot rot-causing microbes are mainly anaerobic, meaning they thrive in an environment without oxygen. Many of these bacteria are found in feces, so even healthy feet are present with bacteria.

Fermentation | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition, Dairy Production, Silage

Why We Ferment Forage
Fermenting forages is very beneficial to cattle nutrition and production-wise. When forage is fermented it causes a breakdown of forage material, making it easier for animals to digest. Since the fermented forage is easier to digest, the bodies can digest forage quicker and releases more energy for the animal. The cattle can utilize the feed more efficiently and this will result in less waste in the undigested material that they excrete.
Breaking it down to the molecular level, microbes multiply and break …

Microbes in the Rumen | Bailey’s Bit About Nutrition

By: Bailey Farrell · Livestock Nutrition

Microbes in the Rumen
We know ruminant animals can digest forages, but do we know how? Ruminant animals are cable of digesting forages, for their rumen is filled with microbes. These microbes play a big role in the rumen. The microbes break down feed to produce volatile fatty acids, which are used by the cows as energy for maintenance and milk production. The rumen microbes are also digested and absorbed in the small intestines as the main protein source for milk production – providing up to …