Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Forums
Cattle Boards
Beginners Board
Distillers grains
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Help Support CattleToday:
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Lucky_P" data-source="post: 1315668" data-attributes="member: 12607"><p>boondocks, </p><p>Winter of 2013-2014 here in KY/TN... a cool, wet preceding spring and summer resulted in most hay produced in this area being really poor quality - overmature when it was finally harvested, with low crude protein, low digestibility - to the point that large numbers of cows and calves essentially were starving to death while eating all of this minimally-nutritious hay that they could take in... and subsequently, many herds experienced calf mortality rates approaching 50% in the subsequent late winter/early spring calving season. </p><p>Rumors were going around about a 'pathogen in the hay'. It wasn't a pathogen, it was a near-complete absence of sufficient nutrients to carry cows through the winter. </p><p></p><p>When I started seeing solid young cows coming through the diagnostic lab in mid-to-late December, starved out - rather than in late Feb/early March... when those starve-out cases usually begin making their way in ... I looked at my own cows... and they weren't in much better shape. My hay was crappy, too. We doubled time at the hay feeders (went from 2hrs to 4 hrs/day) and doubled the amount of DDG we were feeding. It was costly to do, but they all pulled through, calf survival was not an issue, and most cows bred back.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lucky_P, post: 1315668, member: 12607"] boondocks, Winter of 2013-2014 here in KY/TN... a cool, wet preceding spring and summer resulted in most hay produced in this area being really poor quality - overmature when it was finally harvested, with low crude protein, low digestibility - to the point that large numbers of cows and calves essentially were starving to death while eating all of this minimally-nutritious hay that they could take in... and subsequently, many herds experienced calf mortality rates approaching 50% in the subsequent late winter/early spring calving season. Rumors were going around about a 'pathogen in the hay'. It wasn't a pathogen, it was a near-complete absence of sufficient nutrients to carry cows through the winter. When I started seeing solid young cows coming through the diagnostic lab in mid-to-late December, starved out - rather than in late Feb/early March... when those starve-out cases usually begin making their way in ... I looked at my own cows... and they weren't in much better shape. My hay was crappy, too. We doubled time at the hay feeders (went from 2hrs to 4 hrs/day) and doubled the amount of DDG we were feeding. It was costly to do, but they all pulled through, calf survival was not an issue, and most cows bred back. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cattle Boards
Beginners Board
Distillers grains
Top