Spring Cow Management
/Around 80% of all cow health issues occur inside the first 30 days of lactation. It is therefore imperative that we prepare a cow so her transition from a dry state to a lactating state goes as smoothly as possible.
When this is done well, the result will be reduced risk of milk fever, mastitis, metritis and ketosis. It will also improve dry matter intakes post calving, early milk production and rate of weight loss.
Ideally the springer cow needs the following:
She should be on a similar diet to her lactating diet for at least 10-14 days before she calves to allow microbial adaption to occur in the rumen.
If she has achieved BCS 5.0 or better her total ME intake should not exceed 90% of her total springer ME requirements. For a 500kg cow this is about 105MJME down the throat (very important to build in wastage here). A slight energy restriction in these cows results in modest fat mobilisation which in turn primes the liver for its high demands post-calving.
For cows under BCS 5.0 they should get 100% of there ME requirements (and not more). This is about 120MJME for a BCS 4.0 or 4.5 cow.
While calculating a ration to provide adequate ME, also provide another 3kg of cereal straw (or similar) as an effective fibre source.
Springer cows need higher crude protein requirements than cows in the mid-dry period. To have them in a healthy state they need to be on 15-16% crude protein for about 2 weeks before calving. A springer diet heavily based on fodder beet, maize silage or poor-quality silage/bailage is unlikely to achieve this.
Magnesium supplementation should begin at least 2-3 weeks before calving.
In some scenarios supplementing with Anionic Transition salts will greatly reduce the risk of milk fever. Gypsum is a safe calcium salt to give pre-caving (100-150g/cow/day).
Ensure trace mineral status is adequate before calving. Multimin or Selovin 5 should be given 2-4 weeks before calving.
