Butter Fat and No Cycling Questions

[I luv herfrds]

Noticed the amount of cream in my milk has dropped off, is this normal? Been milking her since the end of Febuary.
Still getting the bull developer feed, ground barley and out on pasture.
Normal or do I need to do something to bring it back up?

I have a steer with her and put the heat detector strip on her, nothing. Other then her getting a nasty attitude a couple times no sign of him bulling on her at all. Did catch him licking her neck the other day, but not sure that means anything. He's been with her for over a month.
Should I just forget about trying to do AI on a natural heat and just sync her?

 

[kickinbull]

ILH, the loss of cream is from grass. It will happen every summer. I have tried before to get the butterfat up by adjusting feed, not worth it. I'm not sure about her lack of cycling, it may have taken place at night. Make sure she has a proper mineral, not mineral salt blocks. Good luck.

 

[chippie]

What is in the bull developer feed and the protein content? Is it a sweet feed? We feed our cows alfalfa hay in addition to grass hay. They need the higher protein. We feed a 18% protein lactation pellet. If needs be, you can boost the protein with soy bean meal or cottonseed meal. I have used Calf Manna in the past too. The cows really liked it.

Feeds for beef cattle do not supply the protein & mineral requirements that a lactating cow needs.

We are in a terrible drought right now : (

I wanted to add that our son's little cow, Cookie, gets 20 lbs of feed a day. 10 in the morning and 10 in the evening. This is her first lactation and she is not raising her calf, another cow is. That cow gets 20 lbs a day too.

 

[cow pollinater]

Fat and protien take tons of energy to produce... She'll take care of babies on the ground first, herself second, and then she'll think about reproduction once those two things are in place. You have to give her enough prosperity to do all three. If the first one fell off, it's safe to assume that the other two did as well.
You either need to bump the feed or quit milking her. Syncing her will get her thinking about getting pregnant but if she's not cycling at 120 plus days in milk something is way out of whack and she's not ready to support an embryo regardless of wether or not you can give her one to support.
Remember, she's not a Hereford. :mrgreen: She's half the size and feeding alot more "calves". It takes alot of feed to give her what she needs to do it.

 

[I luv herfrds]

She is getting 2 gallons of the bull developer in the morning plus another gallon of ground barley, then she get's a gallon of bull at night with 2 gallons of ground barley.
She is also on pasture and there is an alfafa bale in a feeder in her pasture. Plus she has a mineral block.

chippie I will look at the tag and let you know. It is a pellet feed made near us.

I know she's not a Hereford CP, just wondering what else I can do. Thought she had cycled at one point because of her attitude, but could get the heat patch on her because of the rain, it wouldn't stick.

Another question, what type of fly spray could I use on her? The flies are getting bad. I poured her a couple weeks ago with Brute, but I can only use it on her every 6 weeks.

 

[chippie]

If you can, weigh your feed so that you know how much she is getting.

You can buy spray and pour ons labeled for lactating dairy cattle. I have had good results with Durasect Pour On. I buy it at our feed store.

http://tinyurl.com/Durasect-Pour-On

 

[I luv herfrds]

Chippie got the label

Crude protein 14%
crude fat 3.5%
crude fiber 13.5%
calcium min .75% mav 1.25%
phosphorus .5%
salt min .25% max .75%
potassium .8%
vit A 5,000LB
vit D 500lb
vit E 10lb
selenium .3 ppm

 

[TexasBred]

Those guarantees are pretty typical but definitely not a feed designed for a dairy cow. A list of the ingredients would be more helpful. Butterfat tends to become depressed when grain:roughage ratio becomes inverted. If she's eating 24-25 lbs. of the grain mix per day she needs a minimum of that same amount of roughage in the form of grazing and the alfalfa you've made available. If not she'll begin developing subclinical acidosis which depresses butterfat but often will increase protein. As the temperatures increase dairy cattle will continue to eat their grain mix but grazing and roughage intake will fall off considerably. Full blown acidosis will lead to depressed milk production as well as long term physical affects in the cow. I'd move up to an 18% dairy ration for additional protein and if necessary mix in a couple pounds of beet pulp or cottonseed hulls in with the pellets for additional roughage with each feeding.

 

[I luv herfrds]

TB the place I buy from does not carry any dairy feed, nor do any of the other feed stores around here.
Weighted the feed today and it came out at 24#'s of pellets and ground barley.
Will see if they have beet pulp or cottonseed hulls.

 

[TexasBred]

TB the place I buy from does not carry any dairy feed, nor do any of the other feed stores around here.
Weighted the feed today and it came out at 24#'s of pellets and ground barley.
Will see if they have beet pulp or cottonseed hulls.

You can topdress it with some soybean meal or other high protein supplement. Haven't done the calculations but shouldn't take over a couple lbs. per day extra. That would get the protein up. I'd really work to see that she gets adequate roughage.

 

[novaman]

Butterfat always falls off in the summertime. The heat is killer on dry matter intake and that is one important aspect to producing butterfat. Dairymen always struggle to keep components up through the summer months.

 

[I luv herfrds]

No beet pulp. The place where they get it from lost all their stuff due to the Yellowstone Eiver flooding. No more til this fall after the harvest.
Got some soybean meal instead. Going to start giving her some of that tonight.

Her production had dropped off briefly, but is back up.

 

[piedmontese]

If you can, weigh your feed so that you know how much she is getting.

You can buy spray and pour ons labeled for lactating dairy cattle. I have had good results with Durasect Pour On. I buy it at our feed store.

http://tinyurl.com/Durasect-Pour-On

1 gallon of pellets weighs 5 lbs.

 

[piedmontese]

couldnt u just give her 20% cubes?

 

[TexasBred]

couldnt u just give her 20% cubes?

Cubes usually contain very little grain or energy. Just a protein supplement. Cattle being pushed for extra milk production need adequate protein but energy and digestibility of the feed is more important. Don't overdo it on the soybean meal. It's very high protein and could cause a real train wreck.

 

[I luv herfrds]

TB she doesn't like it. I mixed some with her ground barley this morning, she took a big bite and I never knew cows could spit. :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
She spit it out and then gave me a dirty look.

Oh her heat patch this morning was all red so the vet is coming out to check her. Got my fingers crossed she is in heat.

 

[chippie]

How much are you giving her? We would add about 1/4 cup per feeding. soybean is something like 44% protein.

If it sifts to the bottom of the feed trough, drizzle a little molasses on the pellets, stir and then add the meal, stir again.

DD's cow was a bit anemic and off after calving earlier this year. We gave her a vitamin supplement and had to use the molasses to make sure that she ate the vitamins. I bought it at the grocery store, poured it into a cleaned dish soap bottle. I just squirted a bit on the pellets. easy peasy.

Good luck with her. I'm glad that she is picking up.

 

[TexasBred]

She'll adjust to the soybean meal. Cattle normally love it but it's new and different so may take a little while. About a lb. added the pellets and barley should be more than enough. The "Hi-Pro" soymeal is 47.5% crude protein.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Yep she was in heat, Checked my tank last week and there was still nitrous in it. Checked it today and it had dried up and the semen was thawed, so just gotta wait for the next cycle.
Hopefully she will be in better shape by then and she will catch quickly.
Looking for the silver lining in the black cloud.

 

[chippie]

Sorry your tank dried up. I hope that it will be OK. It's important to keep them filled. We lost a tank after it was allowed to go dry.