Cattle herds are divided by productivity areas. Some animals are raised for meat, others produce large quantities of milk, and still others have a mixed direction. One of the most valuable breeds of cattle, which gives tasty meat and a lot of milk, is considered the Kostroma breed of cows. This article will discuss the features of the cows of this breed, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as the principles of feeding.

Breed description

The Kostroma cow was bred by Russian livestock specialists in the early 1940s at pedigree factories in the Kostroma region. It is widely distributed in the central regions of the Russian Federation, and is also bred on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. It belongs to the combined milk-meat type of productivity, therefore it is bred for both milk production and slaughter.

Important! Since cows of the Kostroma breed feel more comfortable in temperate or cool climatic conditions, their breeding in the southern regions is not possible. In high temperature conditions, these cows reduce their productivity, their immunity worsens.

The appearance of the Kostroma breed is as follows:

Horns	elongated, up to 20 cm
Head	long
Neck	raised, long
Chest	deep wide
Body	powerful, muscular
Muscle	massive, well defined
Skeleton	wide
Limbs	long
Wool	short, stiff
Suit	from light gray to dark brown
Height at the withers	138-145 cm

Advantages and disadvantages

Thanks to long-term breeding, the Kostroma breed has acquired stable features of meat and dairy cattle and high productivity. Its negative qualities are compensated by a large number of positive traits that contribute to an increase in the Kostroma population in the regions.

Since this breed was bred in wartime, its main advantage is the ability to tolerate adverse conditions.

• Also advantages include:
• 1. Endurance and unpretentiousness in feeding. These animals are resistant to low temperatures, can do without water for a long time and graze at considerable distances from the farm. Their milk yield quickly grows on cheap roughage.
  2. Long period of productivity. In addition to the positive feature - longevity (up to 25 years), Kostroma cows retain high milk yield throughout their lives.
  3. Quick acclimatization. These animals easily adapt to changing weather conditions, can be bred in both temperate and cool, damp climates.
  4. Good health. The high resistance of the immune system leads to a high percentage of survival in calves in the first three months of life and resistance to disease in an adult population.
  5. Precocity. Kostroma cows reach puberty at 13–14 months, as they quickly gain body weight to 520–540 kg.
  6. High productivity. With good fattening, the volume of milk yield is from 4 to 9 thousand liters per year, fat content - 4%, slaughter yield - up to 65%.

Did you know? Breeding of the Kostroma breed lasted more than ten years, until the breed was officially approved in 1945 - immediately after the Great Patriotic War. A large team of livestock specialists worked on the creation of the breed under the leadership of three senior specialists: Stanislav Shteiman, Vaginak Shaumyan and Nikolai Gorsky. Five years later, this breed was used to breed the local Alatau breed of Kyrgyzstan.

• Despite the mass of advantages, this breed has negative features that must be considered when buying an animal:
• 1. Irregular shape of the udder. The structural features of its bowls and nipples cause a low rate of milk transfer - up to 1.2 l / min. This makes complete machine milking difficult during the milk flow period, which lasts no more than 5 minutes.
  2. The need for succulent feed. These are cheap and affordable feeds, but when there is a shortage of them in Kostroma cows, milk yield is reduced.

Maintenance and care

To make animals feel comfortable and delight you with high productivity, they must be provided with comfortable conditions.

Summer playground

Equipped near the farm, it produces a daily exercise of animals. Please note that at least 25 square meters should be allocated to each adult. m area for their comfortable movement. Walking is performed all day, on the site must be present drinking bowls and feeders with a small amount of roughage. Also, a canopy is mounted on the summer platform, under which animals can hide from the heat or short-term bad weather.

Arrangement of premises

In the cold season, animals must be kept in a barn designed for this purpose. The cowshed is a warm room adapted for feeding and milking livestock. There are two ways to keep cows - tethered and loose. The attached content provides for the separation of the barn into equipped stall boxes. The loose method is carried out by keeping the herd, divided into small groups, in the rooms intended for this.

The cowshed is equipped with feeders and drinking bowls. Distribution of feed can be carried out automatically or manually, if the number of goals in the herd does not exceed ten. The water in the drinkers should be kept constant so that the cows can drink plenty.

Important! Automatic drinkers are more hygienic than stationary spills. They are equipped with sensors or mechanical dispensers and pour water into the drinker only when the animal touches the feed tap. The litter in the stall or room is laid either deep (30–40 cm) or shallow (up to 5 cm). The preferred material is peat or sawdust, as they are highly hygroscopic and hygienic. Shallow litter may be straw; it is cleaned daily as it becomes soiled. The deep one should be trampled down by cattle, mixed with manure and gradually shed, providing additional heating for the barn.

Conditions of detention

Since cows of the Kostroma breed are resistant to low temperatures, a cool microclimate will be comfortable for them. Under natural conditions, these animals tolerate temperature differences from -20 to +25 ° C, but it is recommended to maintain the temperature at +18 ° C in the barn. In winter, the temperature can be kept within +4 ° С in cowsheds with an adult livestock and +8 ° С in stalls with young animals.

High humidity provokes a decrease in herd productivity, so it must be maintained at 60–65%. To ensure normal microclimate conditions and air composition will help ventilation. Drafts in rooms are extremely undesirable, so make sure that the air speed does not exceed 0.3 m / s in the summer and 0.1 m / s in the winter.

Normal illumination in the barn can be maintained by artificial and natural lighting. In order for daylight to penetrate into the room in sufficient quantity, the area of ​​the windows should occupy at least 15% of the surface of the walls. As for artificial lighting, the light of fluorescent lamps with an intensity of not more than 75 Lux is considered favorable for animals.

Regular cleaning of the stall and equipment

The main cleaning of the barn is the daily removal of manure as well as stained bedding from the stalls. Cleaning can be carried out both manually and mechanically. Scraper conveyors, scraper units, mobile units are responsible for the mechanical cleaning of the barn. Large farms use hydraulic washing, small ones use manual shovel cleaning.

Did you know? The largest representative of cattle in human history is our contemporary, and he lives in Australia. A bull named Big Mu was born in 2009. At the age of six, his height at the withers was 190 cm, his weight exceeded 1.2 tons, and the total body length reached 4.3 meters. The owner of Bolshoi Mu initially planned to send him to slaughter, like the rest of the cattle on the farm, but noticed that even after two years of life, the goby continues to grow. Now, the happy owner of a record bull claims that the uniqueness of her pet saved his life.

The deep litter is not removed, but treated with a special bacterial preparation. Beneficial bacteria contribute to the breakdown of manure with the release of thermal energy and destroy the pathogenic microflora. Such litter is cleaned no more than once a year and is a valuable fertilizer for crop crops. Feeding troughs and drinking bowls are cleaned and washed daily so that the feed in them does not rot and does not rot.

Feeding ration

Depending on the time of the year, the diet of livestock has to be reviewed, as some feeds become available, while others become unprofitable.

Summer grazing in the pasture

Every day, an adult can eat up to 45 kg of green mass, so grazing is carried out in well-overgrown areas. Grass should be classified as fodder varieties and be in the phase of early milk maturity. Most likely, livestock grazes on a grass stand, the height of which ranges from 15-30 cm. Territories for grazing should change daily, because in one day of grazing, the cattle eats the whole area suitable for feeding.

Meadow pastures provide for simultaneous grazing of herds up to 150 heads. If animals graze in a wooded area, the herd is divided into groups of 50-60 heads, since the density of grass cover in such areas is lower. Grazing is carried out in two stages - in the morning and in the evening. Animals are driven out to pasture at 04:00 and kept there until 09:00. Then they are brought back to the premises, daily milking and feeding with concentrates are carried out, and they are driven back for grazing from 16:00 to 20: 20–20: 30.

Differences in winter feeding

Since in the cold season, green juicy feed is in short supply, their shortage is compensated by concentrated cereal feed, as well as oil crops, molasses, oilcake. Be sure to include foods of animal origin, such as fish and meat and bone meal, in the diet, the mass fraction of root crops also increases.

So that the body does not experience a lack of nutrients, mineral and vitamin supplements are added to the feed. Also in the diet increases the percentage of roughage, such as silage and hay.

Water

This is one of the main components of feeding, as the secretion of one liter of milk takes up to seven liters of drunk cow water. Water should always be abundant. It is necessary to monitor its cleanliness and give in the form warmed up to +22 ... + 24 ° С.

Important! Cows should not be fed with cold water, especially after a significant load or active exercise. This causes problems with the gastrointestinal tract and can cause abortion in pregnant cows. Cows of the Kostroma breed are distinguished by their endurance and unpretentiousness to the conditions of detention. They have good milk and meat productivity, a high survival rate of young animals. To keep herd productivity at a high level, it is necessary to provide it with comfortable conditions and a sufficient amount of high-quality feed.