Feeding the calves. Diet of calves in the first months of life

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In order to successfully breed cattle, you need to know all the details of the care and maintenance of these animals. The most important step is feeding the calves, as adults do not really need special conditions. But young animals of either sex need special and careful supervision for their normal growth and development.

Feeding a newborn calf

After the calf is born, he immediately needs to create comfortable conditions. Firstly, it is necessary to equip a warm, dry place that will not be blown so that the calf can be there. For this, special cages are usually equipped in which straw is laid. You can also install it in the barn, but if it is not blown through.

Secondly, it is necessary to properly feed the calves. After the calf is born, the cow stops producing normal milk and starts producing colostrum. This is a special substance that is much more nutritious than ordinary milk, and also hasits composition contains many vitamins, antibodies and other nutrients and minerals that are needed for the normal growth and development of newborn offspring. In addition, the newborn organism is especially susceptible to various kinds of diseases, and feeding with colostrum will relieve such a problem, as it will help to strengthen and develop immunity as soon as possible.

How to properly feed a calf

Feeding calves should take place according to a special regimen. Colostrum is the main food for newborn offspring. The feeding process should be carried out 4 to 6 times a day. Immediately after birth, it is necessary to start with a single dose of feeding 1 liter at a time. Over time, the rate of colostrum should reach 3 liters. It is very important to note that colostrum is a special milk that has one not too pleasant property. The thing is that it loses its benefits too quickly over time, and after a few days the cow will stop giving it altogether and start producing regular milk. Therefore, in the first days of life, you should try to water the calf with colostrum as often as possible.

Feeding calves in the first days of their life should be accompanied by the fact that on the second day of age the animal should drink up to 1.5 liters of warm water per day. This is necessary to stabilize the process of digestion and improve it.

Place of offspring

It's worth saying that feeding a newborn calf is only part of caring for him. Grow he althy and strongoffspring will not work without the organization of the proper place of residence of the animal. There are some rules that are best followed when it comes to raising he althy calves.

1. Twice a day, it is necessary to clean the cage from litter, and also clean out all the dirty corners.
2. Utensils used for feeding and watering offspring, as well as those used for milking a cow, should be thoroughly washed and scalded with boiling water after each use.
3. In the first couple of days, you need to ensure that the calf drinks colostrum only in small sips. To better control this process, it is recommended to use a drinker with a teat.
4. Calf fattening can be carried out without a special teat, but if it is not available, then the colostrum is placed in a small bucket. To show the animal where the food is, you can slightly moisten your finger in colostrum.
5. When the animal is a little older and able to drink completely on its own, the bucket can be nailed to the wall and colostrum poured into it from the outside.

Feeding process during the milk period

In order to successfully carry out the fattening of calves according to the desired scheme, it is necessary to take care of keeping the calf separately from his mother. The thing is that if you leave the offspring with the parent, then the calf will drink colostrum as much as he wants. Since such small animals have no sense of proportion, the offspring will drink too much, and overloading the body will lead to further problems with the milk production of thisindividuals.

You need to make sure that the calf drinks a little more, because too much colostrum at a time will simply curdle right in the stomach, and this will cause digestive problems. It is very important to carry out the first feeding on time. No matter what time of day the calving occurs, within the next 30 minutes the calf should receive its first dose of colostrum.

Feeding three week old calves

The diet of calves up to three weeks is only colostrum, milk and water. But after this period and further, it will gradually expand and become more diverse. Here are some examples of what to feed a slightly grown calf:

• You can use boiled potatoes to feed young calves.
• It is still possible to give milk to an animal, but its amount should become less and less. You can use calf milk replacer to keep more for yourself.
• At the age of one month, the diet is replenished with hay. However, since the young animal still does not know how to chew well, the hay must be small and of good quality in order for the calf to learn the process of chewing food. At the same time, to prevent worms, hay is moistened with saline.
• When the animal is one month old, you can fully use a milk replacer for calves, which is called obrat. Over time, the proportion of such food in the diet of offspring can become more and more, completely replacing milk.

Necessityproper feeding

The process of feeding young animals is very different depending on the sex of the animal. It is very important to properly and balanced fatten heifers, that is, female calves. There are several reasons for this:

1. It is important to monitor the amount of protein in food, as a small amount of it will lead to slow growth, and too much to a deterioration in the use of this substance.
2. For the full growth and development of the female, it is necessary to provide her with sufficient amounts of calcium and phosphorus, since these two substances play a key role in the formation and growth of tissues and bones.
3. It is very important to keep a sufficient amount of vitamins such as A and D. To obtain them, high-quality hay and fishmeal are added to food. And you can also stimulate the synthesis of vitamin D by walking in the fresh air.
4. Food for female cattle should consist of substances such as whole milk, concentrates, succulents, hay, mineral supplements.

Feed dosage for heifer growth

In order to achieve rapid growth and development of a female, it is necessary to know the correct dosage of all feeds, at what time they should be given.

1. Starting from the 15-20th day of the animal's life, he needs to start giving dry oatmeal. To prepare it, you need to sift the product through a sieve, mix it with warm water, and then you can pour it into the feeder. This product is also bottle fed.
2. starting from the 11th day of life, it is necessary to provide the animal with s alt and chalk inenough. The initial dosage is 5 grams of each product. The older the animal, the greater the dose of s alt becomes.
3. From the 10-15th day of a heifer's life, you can start giving her hay. However, for good growth and development, nutrition should only be of high quality.
4. Juicy feed for cattle, which includes products such as root vegetables and potatoes, can be given to the animal from its second month of life.

Further development of the heifer

Feeding a month old calf is very important, but the diet will have to be monitored in the next few months. Starting from the second month of a heifer's life, oatmeal in her diet must be replaced with corn or a mixture of concentrates. Silage and hay can be given in unlimited quantities. If there is a lack of silage, then you can replace it with an abundant amount of root vegetables in the diet. Some more nutritional changes occur as the grazing season begins.

1. Until 3 or 4 months of age, the amount of concentrates in the diet and milk remains at the same level.
2. Silage and hay cease to be given at all. Replace it with regular green grass.
3. If grass quality is a problem in the pasture, then domestic calves need additional nutrition in the form of mowed green plants.
4. If there are no problems with green grass, then the amount of concentrates and root crops in the animal's diet is reduced by half. This also happens at 3-4 months old.

Cultivation of meat breeds asbusiness

In addition to dairy breeds of cattle, there are also meat breeds. Raising cattle as a business to sell meat is a very, very profitable business. However, in order to raise good offspring, it is necessary to create all the necessary conditions for keeping. However, that's not all. To obtain a large amount of meat, it is necessary to choose one of the meat breeds of cattle. Since ordinary cows or bulls have a fairly small amount of muscle tissue in terms of its sale in the market.

Meat calves

One of the reasonably good meat breeds of cattle is the Hereford. The great advantage of this kind of animals is that they tolerate any diseases perfectly, and their immunity is very strong. In addition, the offspring of these cows gain weight much faster than any other, and the animals themselves are quite hardy. Hereford calves are born with a weight of 34 to 36 kg, which is quite a lot. With further proper care and feeding, babies gain 1 kg per day. It is worth noting that due to such a rapid and powerful process of growth and development, calves lack only mother's milk, and therefore they need additional feed from the first days of life.

Fatting bulls for slaughter

When breeding bulls for further slaughter, they must be kept until about 15-20 months of age. When about three months remain before slaughter, it is necessary to begin enhanced feeding of the individual. If everything is done correctly, then by the time of slaughter the animal will weigh more than 400 kg. Feeding a male animal up to about six monthsconsists of milk, as well as a variety of feed. In the event that the bull was born in the spring, then it can be fed not with roughage, but with juicy and green grass. Such a diet will stimulate the rapid growth and development of the animal. At the age of about a year, the ration for the bull, which is intended for slaughter, should consist of half silage. In spring and summer, animals that are 12 to 18 months old may not be given concentrates. In this case, they should be kept on only one pasture.