Cows are unpretentious animals, they can eat both high-quality food, and they will not disdain food whose quality factor is in doubt. But if the owners of cattle take advantage of their undemanding, then you should not expect high rates and good health from the animal. The level of productivity and physical condition of the horned depends on the owner’s approach to their feeding and living conditions.

The Importance of Proper Cattle Feeding

A well-balanced diet of cows and bulls affects the weight of the animal when it is raised to produce meat products, the amount of daily milk yield and the level of susceptibility to disease.

In addition, good nutrition positively affects the work of internal organs and blood enrichment with oxygen. Even if you plan to use the animal only for further breeding, the feeding of the cow affects the heredity and immunity of the calves.

Did you know? The capacity of the stomach and intestines of the cow is very large. Thanks to this, she can eat 70 kg of feed per day and drink 120 liters of water.

A well-thought-out approach by the herder to feeding cattle is economically feasible, because it helps to reduce the cost of keeping horned animals.

Such attention to the quality of feeding animals is motivated not only by positive consequences, but also by the result of poor nutrition of cows: lack of milk, deepening of the hungry fossa, all kinds of diseases that sometimes lead to death.

Types of feed

For normal livelihoods, it is enough for cows to chew hay or grass, but in order to make the productivity level stable high, various types of natural feed should be included in the cattle diet.

The main

Basic feeds are known for their high levels of crude fiber and nutrients. Of the minuses of this variety of food can be called only a low energy content, so the types of basic feeds are suitable for combination, and not for the basis of the diet.

Silage

Silo is a juicy kvashenin prepared by pickling plants without oxygen. The nutritional properties of this category of basic feed in the process of feeding cattle are estimated at 50%.

There are several types of plant materials from which silo preparation is acceptable:

• corn;
• legumes;
• sorghum;
• cereal mixtures;
• sunflower;
• sunken herbs.

Important! The taste and smell of milk is very dependent on the use of silage, therefore it is recommended to give it to the cow only after milking and in good quality. Thus, the feed manages to assimilate until the next day.

Silo is suitable for addition to the diet of an animal only in the presence of a fruit smell or the smell of canned vegetables. Also, the absence of mold and mucus on the components indicates proper preparation.

Hay

Due to the high concentration of proteins, it is this delicacy that forms the basis of the diet in ruminants for the winter period. Hay is prepared by drying mowing plants and subsequent harvesting in a dry room.

Depending on the category of plant used, there are several types of this food:

• cereal (wheat grass, wheatgrass, clover);
• bean (clover, beans, peas, soy, chickpeas);
• forbs (a mixture of cereal and legumes).

The quality of hay directly depends on the composition of forage grasses, compliance with storage standards and the period when drying was carried out.

Haylage

Haylage is prepared by the method of early drying of young thin-stem plants and their subsequent conservation. The nutritional index of a slightly dried grass is so high that, if necessary, it can replace the usual diet of the animal in the cold season.

Also, haylage ensures the entry of carotene into the body of the animal, while when hay and silage are harvested, it almost runs out. The quality level is determined by color, ideally it should be yellow-green or brown-emerald.

If you have a large livestock, then this type of food is the most suitable and allows you to save on feeding cows.

Green feed

This type of food is most favorite by pastoralists during the warm season, consists of fresh vegetation on pastures and lawns. Alfalfa, peas and clover are considered the most suitable for green food. Their use by cows and bulls allows owners to cheapen the ration of the animal for a while.

The value of green food for cattle is that it is quickly digested and absorbed, fills the body with calcium salts, protein and phosphorus. The most favorable period for pasture is the end of spring and the first month of summer. Then the young grass contains many useful substances and is most suitable for easy digestion.

Root vegetables and vegetables

Such food helps farmers in the stall period, because the components of which it consists can be grown and prepared in advance on their own. The composition includes vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, beets, rutabaga, pumpkin and turnip.

The difference between root crops and vegetables is that they contain a large amount of water, due to which they have a strong effect on the level of productivity, therefore they are referred to milk-fed feeds.

Pumpkin and beets are recommended to be fed raw mixed with straw, flour and animal feed. It is important to wash the roots from the ground before this, remove the rotten parts and cut into pieces. Potatoes need to be boiled, so it will be completely safe to eat.

When adding turnip, it is important not to overdo it and adhere to the standard (no more than 12 kg of one individual per day), from its excess milk can acquire a bitter taste.

Concentrated

Concentrated feeds are characterized by a low content of water and fiber and a high rate of nutrition. These include the fruits of cereals and legumes, and their processed products. They are divided into two categories: protein (soy, peas, beans) and carbohydrate (millet, corn, wheat, barley, oats).

Such food is suitable, rather, as part of a built-up diet, because it contains a deficiency of essential amino acids, and protein and starch, on the contrary, are significant.

Compound feed

Combined feeds include micronutrients and vitamins, which makes them full grain feeds. Often, they consist of fodder yeast and various premixes, due to which the level of protein and trace elements increases with daily use.

The basis of the combined feed is crushed pure grain, so that the productivity of the animal increases by 30%.

Important! Compound feed must be properly dosed, because it contains a large amount of carbohydrates, the oversaturation of which can provoke digestive upset in cattle.

Animal feed

Animal feed includes waste from poultry farms, meat shops and silk production. Flour from meat bran, bones and ligaments is characterized by a generous content of calcium, phosphorus, amino acids, lysine and protein, which are more complete than in fodder of plant origin.

Milk is mainly used for feeding young animals in the first weeks after birth. Thanks to hundreds of nutrients, this food is easily digested and does not require much effort to digest.

Premixes

Premixes are powdered feed additives containing vitamin-mineral (copper, iodine, manganese, iron) and macronutrients (sulfur, magnesium). They are used to improve digestion, immunity, prevent disease and enhance hormonal function in animals.

Also, the use of premixes helps to cleanse the body of toxins, poisons and toxins.

Extruded feed

They are obtained in a short period of time by using an extruder under the influence of pressure, etc.

The peculiarity is that due to heat treatment, grinding and squeezing, this feed enters the cattle’s esophagus in a half-digested state, which facilitates the digestive system and thereby saves the animal’s strength, which are used to improve the body.

Did you know? Statistics show that more than 80% of young animals die due to intestinal diseases and digestion problems. Therefore, when feeding calves, the use of sterile extruded feed is necessary, this significantly reduces the risk of death for the animal.

Feeding schedule

For rearing young animals and obtaining high-quality meat and dairy products, it is important to fully feed and educate owners about the need for specific components, depending on the age of the animal.

Young animals

During life, from birth to six months, large calves intended for dairy and meat products need 250 kg of mother’s milk and 700 kg of nonfat, and for calves of reduced weight, 200 kg of mother’s and 600 kg of nonfat.

Compliance with such a feeding rate guarantees a daily gain of 700 to 800 g.

When using the best quality feeds, a visible increase in the growth and weight of young animals will be traced. Also a lot depends on heredity: if the calf has a high growth potential, then an increase of up to 1000 g per day is possible.

It is recommended during this period to include in the diet herbal flour, concentrates, compound feed and crushed grains.

Adults

Cows and bulls are recommended to be fed 3 times a day. In the morning and in the afternoon, you need to give juicy and cereal feeds, and coarse add to food at the end of each meal. Concentrated feeds are suitable for a snack, so they must be given before going to the pasture.

In the warm season, when there is a lot of vegetation, it will be useful to draw up a table of alternating feeding of greens, this will help to correctly distribute the number of servings depending on the time of mowing, yield and variety of plants.

Top Cattle Feed Manufacturers

When buying feed for cattle, owners often are perplexed by the variety of choices.

The market provides many types of feed, but in order to navigate, we offer you a list of products of the best and most sought-after manufacturers:

1. Addcon
2. Adisseo SAS.
3. UkrLandFarming.
4. Agromars.
5. APK-Invest.
6. Miratorg.
7. APGK Dneprovskaya.
8. Vladimir-Volyn PF.

All of the above confirms the expression: “the cow has milk on the tongue”, so it is important to put only the best feed on this tongue. Then the host forces applied for the proper maintenance of the cows will be doubly paid off.

High-quality food for cattle does not have to be expensive, because in this article we gave examples when cooking with a large reserve of nutrients is possible at home, the main thing is to be interested in this, and then a healthy animal will produce high-quality milk.