Feeding Silage to Heavy Bred Heifers

[shawn_boroviak]

We have two heifers that are set to calve in December, will feeding silage to the heifers during the third trimester make the calves grow substantially and should I stop feeding them?

 

[Son of Butch]

It's easy to overfeed corn silage to bred heifers during the last trimester. Been there done that.
Big calves and calving problems from too fat heifers.

 

[shawn_boroviak]

Perfect, thank you. They will be cut off.

 

[bmoore87]

Seen it both ways.

As long as you are not over doing it to the point that they will are fat ( above body score 6 or 7) you're fine. Cutting back feed to a maintenance level in the 3rd tri can reduce calf size a little, but increases calving difficulties since the heifer isn't at top nutrition and calves don't get up and go as good. Having a cold winter will have more to do with calf size than that.