Fattening up Older Holstein cows??

[randiliana]

Is there any way to fatten up an older holstein cow?? If there is I would really like to know. We have 2 holsteins, 1 is 2 and the other is well, older. I'm not really sure how old though. She looks like we are starving her. Last winter we fed her some of the best feed I have ever fed a cow, and lots of it. Heck, we bought the stuff, and she still looked like she was starving. I don't really care if she looks "fat" but a BCS of more than 2 would be nice. As an added note, we bought her out of a dairy, as a bred cull. She raised 3 calves this summer (on alfalfa pasture) that totaled 1375 lbs, the 2 year old raised 3 that totaled 1265 lbs.

 

[bigbull338]

holsteins require some grain tr around.to stay in good shape.id say you need to feed her 10lbs of grain a day.as well as some grain while she is raising calves.the reason she is so thin is that she is milking herself to death.

 

[randiliana]

holsteins require some grain tr around.to stay in good shape.id say you need to feed her 10lbs of grain a day.as well as some grain while she is raising calves.the reason she is so thin is that she is milking herself to death.

I realize that she needs grain. That is what we were giving her last winter, we had boughten a ration, and had worked her up to about 15 lbs of it a day. The only time that she has looked good (and she was thin when we bought her) was this summer out on the alfalfa.

 

[dun]

It's hard to fatten up any holstein and older cows even moreso. It seems that even when they'rre dry the just don;t fattne even on a high grain diet. The older they are the harder it gets. By typical beef standards she'll never "look good". You have to compare apples to apples, or in this case dairy to dairy.

dun

 

[randiliana]

It's hard to fatten up any holstein and older cows even moreso. It seems that even when they'rre dry the just don;t fattne even on a high grain diet. The older they are the harder it gets. By typical beef standards she'll never "look good". You have to compare apples to apples, or in this case dairy to dairy.

dun

Thanks Dun. We will have to just keep graining her, at least it gives her the energy to make it through another long, cold winter. Which is just setting in. She did well enough last year she just never put any weight on.

 

[dun]

The way they carry fat is kind of hard to detect. A lot depends on the age though. If you can;t see a sharp dip between the spine bones and the a deep pocket between the ribs, she's probably doing better then you think.

You need this one to make the next one make sense
http://cahpwww.vet.upenn.edu/dairy/bcs_desc.html
http://cahpwww.vet.upenn.edu/dairy/bcs_cht.htm
This one may even help more
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/IN ... A_BCS.HTML

 

[randiliana]

The way they carry fat is kind of hard to detect. A lot depends on the age though. If you can;t see a sharp dip between the spine bones and the a deep pocket between the ribs, she's probably doing better then you think.

You need this one to make the next one make sense
http://cahpwww.vet.upenn.edu/dairy/bcs_desc.html
http://cahpwww.vet.upenn.edu/dairy/bcs_cht.htm
This one may even help more
http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/IN ... A_BCS.HTML

Thanks dun, those were very useful.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Is there any way to fatten up an older holstein cow? She looks like we are starving her. Last winter we fed her some of the best feed I have ever fed a cow,

The studies I have seen on fattening cull cows said avoid dairy cows and buy beef cows to get a decent feed conversion. You do see some fat Holseins around but they are usually getting alot of corn or corn silage.