The remaining cow herd is now in its earliest weeks of gestation and requires a modest level of nutrition. It is an opportunity to feed some of the most cost-effective forage diets. But as time goes on, beef cows’ nutrient requirements steadily increase, and new enhanced diets are required.

Unfortunately, some producers do not follow suit, which often leads into a poor calving season. To avoid such catastrophe, a nutritious early-gestation diet should be established for the cow herd that can be built up as winter and their greater nutrient demands descend upon them.

Even before we get started on setting up any gestating cow feeding programs, most producers should walk through their herds, whether on pasture or at home, and think about which cows should be culled. There might be many reasons that beef cows are to be culled; the top qualification on most peoples’ list should be open cows.

I recently spoke to a lifetime producer and friend, who operates a 400-Angus/Simmental cow herd. He allows no exceptions to this rule. He figures that if an open cow (that is, not pregnant) is not sold, not one dime will be generated until the fall of 2025, even if she gets rebred by next spring. And she is already an $800 liability when she is overwintered. Besides, with the strong cull prices at the saleyard, it only makes common sense to put $2,500 per cow in your pocket.

Once these open cows and other stragglers are gone, it’s time for producers take a second walk and assess the general body condition of each gestating cow. That’s because a properly fed cow during autumn and going into winter with an optimum body condition score of five to six — on a scale of one (emaciated) to nine (obese) — has a great chance of maintaining a trouble-free pregnancy and good calving season. This compares to a thinner cow with a BCS of less than four, which is most likely to have difficulty surviving winter and often ending up in a difficult calving situation.

Early- to mid-gestation mature cows make the best overwintering candidates to either maintain their optimum BCS of five to six or build it up. In the fall, their nutrient requirements are comparably low to other times of the year.

Therefore, to support their own vital functions and an early-term fetus, cows require 52-55 per cent TDN (dietary energy), nine to 10 per cent crude protein, 0.4 per cent calcium, 0.25 per cent phosphorus, 0.2 per cent magnesium and salt, essential trace minerals and vitamins.

With the advent of bountiful cereal straw across the Prairies this autumn, I have already built a couple of dozen diets to meet these initial nutrient requirements from late October to the middle of December. Plus, I am prepared to increase their plane of nutrition as we progress into the colder weather of winter. In the table here you’ll see six well-balanced early gestation diets for 1,200- to 1,400-lb. pregnant beef cows.

One assumed consideration in all these just-under-$2 diets is to include an accompanying mineral-vitamin program. In this way, I often recommend to producers that they feed their cows a well-balanced yet less costly standard cow mineral for the first 90 days of early to mid-gestation and then switch their herd over to a breeder mineral formulated with organic trace minerals and higher vitamin levels for the remaining 60 days before calving.

It is common that many people forgo this two-step mineral program and feed the latter fortified breeder mineral for the entire gestation period.

As a beef nutritionist, I am aware that these outlined early-gestation diets (with a good mineral-vitamin feeding program) have a limited overwinter purpose. By mid-December, they should be re-evaluated and necessary changes should be made to enhance the level of their nutrition.

Such changes may include replacing a significant amount of straw with more nutritious grass hay and corn silage, or it may simply mean adding a couple extra pounds of barley. Either way, the essential nutrient requirements in most cowherds are achieved until the calving season.

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My goal in developing such an overwinter beef cow mineral is to achieve adequate mineral status in the cow herd. I believe that many beef cows are in a state of marginal mineral status when they are brought home from pasture. That’s because parts of Western Canada have been affected by reoccurring drought in 2023, in which the pasture grasses were not mineral- or vitamin-nutritious. 

I just reviewed a series of lab analyses from pastures under drought conditions, in which their phosphorus (P) levels are 0.10 per cent compared to last year’s rainy profiles of 0.22 per cent. Given an average early-gestation cow requires about 0.35 per cent P on a dietary daily basis, it is unlikely that this year’s cow meets her total phosphorus requirement without some type of overwinter supplementation. To compound this problem, many producers did not provide any commercial mineral/vitamins on pastures, because they say that their cattle wouldn’t eat enough of it on hardened grass. 

I am working with a 200 cow-calf producer who was severely impacted by the dried-out pastures during this past grazing season. Plus, many of his cows were treated for foot rot due to soft hooves, despite standing on hard drought ground. Yes, he did feed trace mineral salt blocks on pasture, but felt that his cows didn’t draw much benefit from them. 

In developing his new overwinter 22:7 beef cow premix, our plan is to first build the mineral/vitamin status of the cows by respectively supplementing their early- and mid-gestation TMR, which is fed in a big holding area adjacent to his farm. It is made up of low-quality “prairie wool” forage and supplemented with three pounds of corn dried distillers’ grains that will be fed during the first couple of months of winter. About Christmastime, the cattle will be moved onto open cornfield grazing until they are ready to calve at the end of February. 

This 22:7 beef cow premix will be provided at the rate of three to four ounces per head per day in loose form, poured into plastic three-compartment feeders mounted on old tractor tires. They will be near waterers accessible by the grazing cornfields. Although this premix is well-balanced for this case, I am focusing on four areas of its mineral/vitamin nutrition in particular:

• Calcium (22 per cent). It is high in legumes, moderate in grass, but low in low-quality forages and notoriously low in corn plants. This producer had previous issues with milk fever when he started cornfield grazing a few years ago. This problem was solved with heavy calcium supplementation. 
• Phosphorus (seven per cent). Grains are high in phosphorus but low in drought-stressed crops. Our calculations dictate that supplementing about seven to nine grams of P will help meet this macro-mineral requirement of gestating cows until calving. We also supplemented magnesium in the same way. 
• Copper (3500 ppm). This region of Manitoba is low in copper in both forages and soil. In addition, they also contain high levels of molybdenum (plus high water-sulphates) that may render copper unavailable to cattle. Therefore, I add copper in highly bio-available chelated form. Plus, I formulated zinc-methionine into the premix at four gram/ hd/d to harden hooves against foot rot. 
• Vitamin A (700,000 iu/kg). A gestating beef cow needs about 70,000 iu of vitamin A per day for meeting basic needs, producing colostrum and helping with post-calving issues. Elevated levels of Vitamin E in this mineral (3500 iu/kg) also assists in these areas of cow nutrition. 

This is a well-balanced beef cow mineral that I am confident fits the mineral/vitamin part of these cows’ overall overwinter feeding program. Yet just because this mineral looks good in the mineral feeder, the producer and I also want to be equally confident that his cow herd will eat it. That’s is why we added a bit of garlic oil, corn distillers’ grain and about 10 per cent salt to its formula. In addition, he will monitor their mineral intake throughout the winter and we will make changes to its formula when necessary.

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As a matter of routine, many profitable cow-calf operations I deal with have already separated their bred first-calf heifers from the rest of the cow herd going into the winter. They also have bred them (last year) about three weeks ahead of the main cow herd so they calve earlier (in the present year) and to allow a natural 20-30 days of extra postpartum interval.

It’s precious time to return and repair their uterus to normal involution (size) and to return to active estrus cycles. All the while, they are nursing a newborn calf and maybe putting on some growth themselves. In the end, it is also time to synchronize the future calving seasons of these young cows with the older brood cows.

Starts on day one

All these undertakings start on the day of calving. A good body condition at this time must be maintained over the next few months as it will improve upcoming reproductive performance. The optimum body condition score (BCS) of five to six on a scale ranging from zero to nine is an indication of her current nutritional status, which is the single most important factor that controls postpartum interval, milk production, estrus strength, services per conception and ultimately successful rebreeding.

[RELATED] Canadian Cattlemen: Picking replacement heifers

As a ruminant nutritionist, I believe that maintenance of optimum BCS from calving to breeding season in first-calf heifers starts in hindsight, with a well-balanced overwinter feeding program containing 55-58 per cent TDN and 10-11 per cent protein. Then, ever so slightly, it increases this plane of nutrition within weeks of calving, ending with a post-calving/ lactation diet of 62-63 per cent TDN and 11-12 per cent protein. This is a fortified continuation of these previous gestation diets.

The dietary nutrient requirements of these calved-out first-calf heifers are really no different than a mature beef cow’s on a kilo-for-kilo basis. Yet they must be condensed into a denser post-calving diet due to the heifer’s lower dry matter intake (DMI) and lower forage gut capacity. Furthermore, within a few weeks of calving, first-calf heifers experience about a 20 per cent decrease in DMI, which must be built back up after calving or be prone to a drop in precious body condition.

Some suggested diets

Given that a post-calving first-calf heifer should consume about 2.5 per cent of her bodyweight in feed, a typical heifer weighting 1,000- 1,100 lbs. should consume 25 lbs. of feed on a dry matter basis per day. Here are three lactation diets I have set up for a few Prairie beef producers in the last few months. They are geared for replacement heifers that are ready to calve in mid-February to the beginning of March:

• #1 — 25 lbs. mixed alfalfa-grass hay, three lbs. of barley and three oz. of a 1:1 breeder mineral.
• #2 — 30 lbs. of barley silage, 12 lbs. of grass hay, two lbs. of DDGS and three oz of a 2:1 breeder mineral.
• #3 — 20 lbs. barley silage, 15 lbs. of first-cut alfalfa hay and four lbs. of screening pellets.

The common thread among these diets is that forages were taken from on-farm inventories that were saved for the later part of winter to help meet these post-calving nutrient requirements. I didn’t feed lower-quality forages such as straw to avoid challenging a heifer’s limited feed intake. But I allowed some extra energy such as a couple more pounds of grain or DDGS to added in each diet when the windchill temperature dips below -18 C.

[RELATED] Canadian Cattlemen: Nutrition 101 for replacement heifers

I expect that as the weather gets warmer and these heifers are 60 days postpartum, all grain feed will likely be eliminated, and less barley silage might be fed (ration #2 and #3) and replaced by grass hay. This is done to still help them grow, still produce milk and prevent any animal from getting too fat. Best of all, it prepares them for a successful breeding season.

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Potassium is classified as a vital macro-mineral for dairy cows. It’s similar to calcium and phosphorus, required in grams per cow per day, as compared to essential trace minerals such as copper and zinc which are required in milligrams per head (mg = 1/1000 gram). According to NRC (2001), a typical dairy cow needs about 1.0 per cent potassium of her daily diet (dm basis) to perform vital functions, namely osmotic balance at the cellular level, nerve transmission and of course, good milk and milkfat production.

The funny thing is that a good body of research suggests that 1.0 per cent potassium is too low in the lactation diet. This K deficit can cause high-producing dairy cows to become marginally deficient, especially during their first 10 weeks of lactation.

These scientific papers point out that dairy cows naturally lose a significant amount of potassium every day through milk production alone. That’s because milk contains about 0.15 per cent potassium (compared to 0.10 per cent calcium and 0.08 per cent phosphorus), which secretes 25-40 per cent of daily potassium intake, depending on feed intake and milk yield. Since there is little storage capacity in the cow’s body (such as bones for calcium and phosphorus), a significant amount of potassium must be consumed in the lactation diet every day to meet body maintenance and production requirements.

Correcting a K deficiency

As a dairy nutritionist, I read many of these research papers which recommend that all potassium requirements of lactating dairy cows can be met with at least 1.3-1.8 per cent potassium formulated in early-lactation diets (dm basis). For example, I have seen first-hand a case of a possible K-deficiency in a 120-milking cow operation that took this advice, with positive results.

Last year, this producer told me he was having milk production issues with his early-lactation cows from 50 to 90 days in milk. Upon review of his lactation diet, adequate amounts of energy (44 Mcal/head), protein (17 per cent) and enough calcium (200 grams)/phosphorus (110 grams) were being fed. Upon review of the dietary potassium level, it seemed low (0.90 per cent). So I felt we should increase it to 1.4 per cent.

I did this by increasing the potassium-enriched alfalfa hay portion of the diet (2.88 per cent K) by two kilos, while substituting out an equivalent amount of corn silage (1.1 per cent K). Plus, I added 40 grams/head of potassium chloride to their grain mix, which was added after the forage in their TMR. No other dietary changes were made and within about two weeks of introduction, average dry matter intake of the cow herd increased from 25.7 to about 26.2 kg per head daily. A milk production increase followed from 33.8 kg to about 34.7 kg per cow per day. Milkfat remained unchanged at 4.2 per cent.

At first I was hesitant to increase the potassium in this diet by 40 per cent, since high levels are known to interfere with magnesium, another macro-mineral. Researchers at Ohio State University showed that for every one per cent unit increase in dietary K above the 1.0 per cent NRC recommendation in the lactating diet, 20-30 per cent more magnesium is needed to meet the cow’s respective requirements. That’s because high levels of dietary potassium inhibit magnesium absorption in the cow’s gut. Therefore I made sure that this new lactation diet met a critical ratio of 4:1 (K to Mg) to avoid antagonistic problems.

I am not sure why we focused solely upon the potassium levels of this lactation diet in the first place. It might have been that for some time, I’ve implemented a 1.4 per cent potassium level in most of my dairy feeding programs. I also think that I am balancing more dairy TMRs containing corn silage, which in itself contains relatively low potassium and often needs K supplementation. In either case, it’s a good lesson to me — review every lactation dairy diet that I come across and make sure that enough potassium is being fed.

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Aside from price, I can formulate canola meal and/or soybean meal almost interchangeably in my lactating dairy diets — both as primary sources of crude protein (CP) and a somewhat secondary source of rumen undegradable or ‘bypass’ protein’ (RUP). That’s because canola meal has a protein content of about 41 per cent and a bypass protein of 30-35 per cent (UIP per cent, CP), which in turn has a 75 per cent degradability in the lower gut.

These nutrient specs are comparable to soybean meal, with a consistent protein content of 51 per cent and a bypass protein level of 35 per cent (UIP per cent, CP), which is nearly all digested (94 per cent) in the lower gut. Finally, both ingredients have a measured dietary energy (Nel) value of 1.80-1.90 Mcal/kg, which is slightly less than corn and cereal grains.

Some researchers and fellow nutritionists might take exception to these nutrient values, since many of them believe canola meal is a much better choice over soybean meal in lactating dairy diets. They often argue that it is no longer valid that soluble protein in most feedstuffs like canola meal is equated to rumen-degradable protein, but a portion of soluble protein actually adds to the value of their bypass protein. As a result, canola meal should have a higher RUP value of 44 per cent, which is higher than soybean meal’s RUP. Furthermore, these people say that older formulating models compute the indigestible lignin of canola meal in error, which also underestimates canola meal’s dietary energy value as mentioned above.

As good supporting evidence, the University of Saskatchewan (2017) reported a literature review of 49 studies in which canola meal replaced a group of commonly used protein sources and soybean meal in lactating dairy diets at up to 20 per cent (dm basis). Cows fed canola meal as dietary protein replacement (crude protein and bypass) had increased milk production — 0.7 kg per day (soybean meal) and 1.4 kg (other protein sources). In some of these trials where soybean meal was replaced with canola meal, milk urea nitrogen (MUN) levels were lower and overall feed efficiency of the dairy diet improved.

In addition, South Dakota University (2009) formulated canola meal as a total and a partial protein substitute of corn dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS-30 per cent crude protein, 62 per cent bypass protein) in a common diet for 12 early/multi-lactation dairy cows. The respective treatments were 100, 66, 33, and 0 per cent replacement protein, which resulted in milk production and its components to be similar for all such treatments. The researchers concluded that canola meal was a suitable replacement for DDGS in most lactation dairy diets.

Such evidence might even convince me that canola is a more nutritious protein source than soybean meal or DDGS for good milk production. However, its wider acceptance by dairy farmers is likely based upon its economic advantage compared to these protein feed ingredients to make milk. I often calculate the cost of canola meal protein as well as its bypass protein (RUP) and compare them with those of soybean meal and DDGS:

• Canola ml protein (36 per cent CP, as fed) = $ 465 mt/.36 = $ 1,292/mt vs Soybean ml (47 per cent CP, as fed) = $690/.47 = $ 1468/mt
• Canola ml RUP (35 per cent of CP, as fed) = $ 465 mt/.36/.35 = $ 3,690/mt vs Soybean ml RUP (35 per cent of CP, as fed) = $690/.47/.35 = $ 4194/mt
• Canola ml protein (36 per cent CP, as fed) = $ 465 mt/.36 = $ 1,292 mt vs DDGS (28 per cent CP, as fed) = $410/.28 = $ 1464/mt
• Canola ml RUP (35 per cent of CP, as fed) = $465 mt/.36/.35 = $ 3,690 mt vs DDGS RUP (60 per cent of CP, as fed) = $410/.28/.60 = $2,440/mt

These are straightforward feed costs to review when formulating canola meal as a nutritious yet economical feed ingredient in lactating dairy diets. In a recent dairy feeding program I revised, I substituted one kilogram of soybean meal ($0.69) for 1.2 kg of canola meal ($0.49) in the lactating dairy diet and saved about $0.20 per lactating cow per day. For this 200-milking cow dairy, this little change saved the dairy producer — about $1,200 per month.

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These diets must also retain their precious body condition (BCS of 2.5 -3.0, on a 5-point scale) so females can get rebred and conceive within the first few weeks of the breeding season. Not to mention the ‘next year’s’ calves from these properly fed cows and heifers tend to be born earlier in a shortened calving season, which also results in higher saleable weaning weights in the fall.

Research agrees, and confirms that postpartum beef cows in good BCS must consume a good level of dietary energy or 60-62 per cent TDN (total digestible nutrients) and a crude protein level of about 11-12 per cent in their daily diet, particularly when cows are milking at their highest levels which can be 10 to 15 litres per day.

First-calf heifers may not eat or milk as well as older cows but their dietary requirements are almost the same since they are still growing too. Moreover, regardless of age, all cows which calve in January to March might need 20-30 per cent more dietary energy just to keep warm, which is added on to their basic maintenance needs and supersede nutrients needed for milk production and reproduction.

Even with good forages, diets also must include minerals and vitamins such as calcium, phosphorus and other essential macro-minerals. In a similar fashion, respective bio-available sources of copper, zinc, manganese, iodine, cobalt, and selenium as well as fortified levels of vitamins A, D, an E should also be fed.

Well-planned diets for post-calving cows don’t have to be fancy or complex. Some of my best 80/90-day post-calving feeding programs follow these timeless traditional methods. Producers feed their early or mid-gestating cows on lower-nutrition forages such as straw or more grassy-types forages, as long as they meet the modest early- and mid-gestation nutrient requirements for most of the winter. Then they switch to a higher energy/protein diet encompassing higher-quality forages such as alfalfa-grass mixtures just before calving. This practice continues until the cows are moved onto green pastures and the breeding season is in sight.

A real herd feeding program

Case in point: I work with a beef producer on the southern Prairies who calves-out 150 commercial Angus/Simmental crossbred cows starting in the middle of March (re: replacement heifers freshen, three weeks earlier) during a 50-day calving season. The bulls are turned out about a couple months later.

His new post-calving diet (as well as nearly identical 30-day pre-calving feeding program) follows a modest overwintering program of allowing his early- and mid-gestation cow herd, right after fall weaning, to graze barley stubble supplemented with round bales of grass and cattle lick-tubs.

It goes something like this:

1. A morning feeding of a TMR mix is made up of 17 lbs. of alfalfa-brome grass bale and is chopped in a tub-grinder. It is mixed with four ounces of a fortified breeder cattle mineral and 10 lbs. of water.
2. An evening feeding of 14 per cent protein alfalfa round bales is set out. No grain is fed to the cows until about a month after calving to coincide with peak milk production, then two to three pounds of dry-rolled barley is fed.

As a result of his investment, my friend notices over the years that his cows clean within minutes after a 95 per cent calving rate and largely trouble-free calving season. Afterwards, these postpartum cows seem to milk well and later on return to active heats, are bred and conceive with a new calf.

Postscript: Last autumn, his weaned steers weighed 780 lbs. and heifers weighed 745 lbs.

In a nutshell, whether producers take the advice from me, my client or well-run university studies — we all advocate that a high plane of nutrition is necessary for beef cows after they calve. Again, it comes down to providing the cows’ essential nutrient requirements so they milk well and are ready for the upcoming breeding season. Such success is measured with spring calves that grow well and their mums get pregnant with another new calf.

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Blair’s and Federated Co-operatives (FCL) announced last week they’ve reached an agreement to set up a joint venture which, pending regulatory approvals, will own and operate the seven Blair’s ag retail outlets in central and southeastern Saskatchewan.

The seven locations, at Lanigan, Nokomis, Watrous, Liberty, McLean, Lipton and Rosthern, “will offer a broad range of crop input and animal nutrition products and services to continue to meet the business needs of local area farmers and ranchers.”

The retail business includes Blair’s AgIntelligence ag consulting services, its proprietary PerforMax line of beef cattle nutrition products, and other feed products for the poultry, hog, sheep, horse and dairy sectors and companion animals.

Other Blair’s businesses, such as its Texcana Logistics fertilizer terminal near Hanley, Sask., and its farming operations including Blair’s Ag Cattle Co., will not be part of the joint venture with Saskatoon-based FCL, the companies said.

Blair’s management and staff will continue to lead the day-to-day operations of the ag retail business, the companies said Feb. 3 in a release.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t released, though the companies said the new venture will be subject to closing conditions including Competition Bureau approval and other clearances.

The bureau must be notified of transactions when the involved assets in Canada, or revenues from sales in or from Canada generated from those assets, are valued at $93 million minimum. That threshold for 2021 was announced Thursday and is expected to take effect Saturday.

“Blair’s is a trusted and well-respected local family business with history of serving farm customers and communities for generations, and whose values match our own,” Ron Healey, FCL’s vice-president for ag and consumer business, said in the companies’ release.

“The joint venture is an opportunity for FCL to expand our presence in central and southeastern Saskatchewan, which will ultimately benefit our local Co-op member-owners and the entire Co-operative Retailing System.”

“We believe the joint venture with FCL, which shares the same core values and long-term commitment to agriculture as us, will ensure that we continue demonstrating value to our customers, employees and communities in the future,” Blair’s chief operating officer Darren Blair said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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In this way, nobody gets caught short on providing such an essential nutrient to their beef cows. They can avoid common vitamin A deficiency signs such as reduced feed intake, high incidence of disease, edema, diarrhea, poor-quality colostrum (for newborn calves), a high incidence of stillborn/weak calves as well as reproductive and calving problems.

As a beef nutritionist, I have received several farm calls request- ing mineral/vitamin formulas be customized in order to build vitamin A status in bred animals. The amount often exceeds the gestating beef cows’ NRC requirement by 100 to 200 per cent. The accompanying table shows recommended daily vitamin A requirements.

The need for high vitamin A originates from lessons learned years ago that many winter deficiencies are due to variable levels of vitamin A found in pastures during the grazing season, or rapid vitamin degradation in stored forage. Also, significant genetic progress of cattle raised in the last 30 years simply means animals need more vitamin A.

To ensure enough supplemental vitamin A is formulated into a mineral/vitamin premix, I calculate the total amount of vitamin A supplied to each cow, which is based upon the premix’s dietary vitamin A concentration (iu/kg) and its daily feeding rate (grams/head/day).

For example, a feed label of a commercial cow premix might list its vitamin A level as 700,000 iu/kg and it is to be fed at 112 grams (4 oz or 0.25 lb.) to each gestating beef cow. It provides 78,400 iu per head of vitamin A per day. In this case, this final amount exceeds the cow herd’s specific NRC requirement for vitamin A, yet is well below the CFIA maximum allowance of 100,000 iu/head/d for beef cattle.

Shots will work too

Some producers instead prefer to give vitamin A shots directly to their beef cows to either build them up for a few winter months or reverse a suspected deficiency. In either case, the general recommendation is to inject 1.0-1.5 million iu of vitamin A per head, with the option of periodic injections where warranted.

Regardless of which practice is used, research shows vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin which cattle can store in large amounts in their liver. This happens when daily intake is three to five times greater than the average cow’s daily requirement. For example, an average gestating beef cow can store up to four months’ worth of vitamin A requirements in her liver.

Along with symptoms of vitamin A deficiency mentioned earlier, researchers also learned that severely vitamin A-deficient cows usually have a hard time returning to good vitamin A status, even though dietary sources are available. It seems once an animal experiences a shortage, it results in permanent internal damage from failure to metabolize dietary vita- min A as well as reduced liver storage capacity.

It should be noted vitamin A is not a specific nutrient and is actually a generic term (like no-name products), which encompasses several compounds with similar bio- logical activities to a compound called retinol.

Retinol and its biologically active derivatives are not found in common forages and grains, but in nature, these plants contain the yellow beta-carotene, which is converted by enzymes on the small intestine wall to retinol-metabolites. These are absorbed and metabolized to meet a cow’s “vitamin A” requirements. Commercial feed mills use highly bioavailable retinyl acetate or palmitate forms as their main source of vitamin A for cattle.

*Daily NRC requirements are calculated based on 500-pound growing or stressed calves and 1,200-pound cows.

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National Research Council (NRC) recommendations call for beef cattle to consume between 20-40 mg/kg diet (while dairy cattle require more zinc; 40 mg/kg zinc diet). Factors such as age of the animals, growing and production status, stress and disease challenges are taken into account and often call for additional zinc in cattle mineral for a few special customers.

Zinc nutrition for cattle is important as it is involved in energy metabolism, protein synthesis, DNA functions and the internal workings of cattle immunity.

Several benefits

With so much good science, the benefits of feeding zinc has several examples such as:

• Strong hooves. Because zinc is part of specific enzyme systems involved in epithelial (skin) formation and repair, feeding extra dietary zinc is thought to strengthen cattle hooves, particularly under harsh field and housing conditions. For example, Illinois State University fed a group of replacement heifers an additional 200 mg/hd/d in the form of zinc methionine (organic zinc) for 75 days and had fewer cases of foot rot, heel cracks, claw dermatitis, and laminitis. Stronger hooves provide a stronger barrier against pathogenic microbes that commonly work their way into cracks in cattle hooves and once inside, they cause foot disease.
• Less sickness. Texas research demonstrates that serum zinc levels decrease dramatically when drylot beef cattle were diagnosed with respiratory tract infections caused by IBR. On the other hand, some Midwest research demonstrates when dietary zinc is supplemented in a more bioavailable forms (such as chelated zinc); less morbidity (sickness) among long-trucked receiving feedlot cattle was reported. Similarly, zinc has been shown to fight mastitis by stimulating an immune system response in infected udders.
• Fertility. Zinc has been shown to play an essential role in many cow reproductive functions such as strong estrus cycles, improved conception rates, promotion of normal post-partum uterine involution, and reduction of metritis. In the bullpen, zinc plays in a role in male fertility; essential role in the sperm production, and increased circulating male hormones such testosterone.

I remember about five years ago, when a beef producer grazing about 100 beef cows in swampy pastures had a real problem with lameness in his cattle (such as the Illinois case, above). The good news was that it wasn’t foot rot, but many cows suffered from cracked and bruised hooves. I suggested he feed zinc-methionine at four grams per head (formulated into a commercial beef mineral) daily for the rest of the summer and until the ground freezes. At the end of the four months, he told me that the cow herd had got over this crippling problem.

It’s a good demonstration on the power of zinc in cattle nutrition, whether you are feeding beef cows, replacement heifers, bulls or calves. It also a good reminder that zinc as well as other essential nutrients will only “work” in cattle when; they receive a good level, it’s in a bioavailable form and the zinc is balanced with other nutrients in the cattle diet. As a result, overall good nutrition as well as good zinc status is assured.

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Moving forward, they now feed their calved-out beef cows diets which contain a higher plane of nutrition than diets they fed during gestation. These post-partum diets help cows produce lots of milk for new spring calves and return cows to good reproductive performance.

Post-partum beef cows require about 60 to 62 per cent TDN (total digestible nutrients) and about 11 to 12 per cent crude protein in their diet, by the time they are milking at their highest levels (re: 10 litres per day). First-calf heifers do not eat nor milk as well as older cows, but their dietary concentrations are similar, because they need extra nutrients for growth. It’s also important to keep in mind all cows that calving February to April might use 20 to 30 per cent more dietary energy just to keep warm, which supersedes milk production and reproductive requirements.

Essential cattle minerals (and A, D and E vitamins) should also be provided in post-partum cow diets, such as calcium, phosphorus and other essential macro-minerals. They complement whatever mineral levels found in forages. Also trace mineral requirements of beef cows nearly doubles since the start of the winter season. Bio-available sources of copper, zinc, manganese, iodine, cobalt, and selenium must be fed.

Manitoba experience

With these nutrient guidelines in mind, I asked a friend who runs a 150-beef cow operation in the Interlake region of Manitoba, how he specifically feeds and manages his cow herd after they calve in mid-March.

First, he tells me his main goal after calving is to maintain the calving body condition score of cows at 2.7-3.0 (1 = thin to 5 = obese) for the next 80-90 days. It’s his foundation in order to have cows milk well, repair their reproductive tracts and almost assure cows and heifers have at least one strong heat cycle before the start of this year’s breeding season.

His subsequent post-partum feeding program is what he calls “old school nutrition.”

Back in the early December, he segregated his 1,200-1,400 lb. hay bales. Near the south side of an old barn, he stores bales of gestation hay; mostly fair-quality grass hay. Across the road in a tree-lined field, he stores lactation bales; better quality hay (1/3 alfalfa and 2/3 timothy hay) for main cows and replacement heifers after calving.

My friend rolls out the lactation bales at the rate of 30-40 lbs. of hay per cow on a daily basis. He will supplement with three to four pounds of ground barley, when the weather gets really cold. In contrast, he is a big advocate of putting out loose “breeder cattle mineral” (with organic/chelated trace minerals and fortified levels of vitamins A, D and E) at the rate of two to four ounces per head per day in tire-mounted mineral feeders along with blue cobalt-iodized salt blocks.

As a cost-conscious beef producer, he likes to budget feeding programs for his cattle. For example, this is his investment for this year’s post-calving diet:

• 35 lbs. forage @ $40 per 1,200-lb. bale = $1.17
• 3 lbs. of barley @ $3.75 per bushel = $0.23
• 4 oz. of Breeder mineral @ $40 per 25-kg bag = $0.18

Total cost per head …………………………………… = $1.58

For roughly $1.60 per head per day, my friend successfully maintains the BCS of his cow herd from calving to the breeding season. His cow herd’s conception rate by mid-June has consistently been around 95 per cent in a 70-day calving/breeding season.

Several university studies have confirmed my friend’s commitment of maintaining BCS from calving to the breeding season. Case in point: a two-year Oklahoma State University study illustrates two polarized BCS situations; beef cows that were fed to maintain body condition from calving until the beginning of the breeding season averaged 94 per cent pregnant, while those that calved in similar body condition but lost nearly a full condition score were 73 per cent rebred.

Regardless of my friend’s “old school nutrition” or the latter well-run university study, a good feeding program for cows after calving comes down to meeting their essential nutrient requirements, so they milk well and are ready for the upcoming breeding season. Success of these feeding efforts is measured with this year’s growing calves and the cows getting pregnant with another new calf.

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