By the time you read this, the Olympics and Paralympics will be over. All those top athletes had to be at peak performance at the right time to be able to get to the event and be medal contenders! This was only possible with lots of training, excellent nutrition and coaching.
Our dairy cows are comparable with Olympic athletes. Cows are expected to produce plenty of milk, while not losing too much body condition, and to get pregnant every 365 days. All of this has to happen on a diet consisting of mainly pasture!
To enable your cows to reach their full genetic potential and be able to produce lots of milk, while getting in-calf on time, the details and balance of their nutrition are very important.
Most cows receive enough feed, containing enough energy, protein, fibre and starch, for basic milk production. However, if you want more milk per cow AND expect them to conceive in the first round of AI (instead of the last week with the bull), giving them a boost with minerals and vitamins is important.
Before mating starts, we advise you test a representative group of your ‘Olympic athletes’ (young and old) with some liver and blood testing. If you don’t test, you don’t know where your cows are!
The main trace element levels that we test for are
Copper
Selenium
Magnesium
Calcium
Phosphorus
Vitamin B12 (sometimes recommended)
Iodine.
Let’s give all your cows a chance to do well this season! Give us a call to book in some liver and blood testing for your ‘on-farm athletes’.
