Feeding calves. Diet of calves in the first months of life

In order to successfully engage in breeding of cattle, you need to know all the subtleties of care and maintenance of these animals. The most important stage is the feeding of calves, as adults do not particularly need special conditions. But young growth of any gender needs special and careful supervision for its normal growth and development.

Feeding a newborn calf

After the calf was born, he immediately needs to create comfortable conditions. First, it is necessary to equip a warm dry place, which will not be blown out so that the calf can be there. To do this, usually customize the special cells in which they plant straw. You can install it in the barn, but if it is not blown.

Secondly, it is necessary to properly feed the calves. After the calf is born, the cow stops giving normal milk and begins to give colostrum. This is a special substance that is much more nutritious than regular milk, and also contains a lot of vitamins, antibodies and other nutrients and minerals that are necessary for the normal growth and development of newborn offspring. In addition, the newborn organism is particularly susceptible to a different kind of disease, and colostrum feeding will relieve this problem, as it will promote the speedy strengthening and development of immunity.

How to feed the calf properly

Feeding of calves must pass through a special regime. Colostrum is the main food for the newborn offspring. The process of feeding should be carried out 4 to 6 times a day. Immediately after birth, you must start with a single dose of feeding in 1 liter at a time. Over time, breeding the norm of colostrum should reach 3 liters. It is very important to note that colostrum is a special milk that has one not very pleasant property. The thing is that it too quickly loses its benefits over time, and after a few days the cow will stop giving it at all and start producing normal milk. Therefore, in the first days of life, you should try to milk the calf as often as possible with colostrum.

Feeding calves in the first days of their lives should be accompanied by the fact that on the second day the animal should drink up to 1.5 liters of warm water per day. This is necessary to stabilize the digestive process and improve it.

Place of maintenance of offspring

It should be said that feeding a newborn calf is only part of caring for it. Grow a healthy and strong offspring will not work without the organization of the proper place of stay of the animal. There are some rules that are best to observe if you need to grow healthy calves.

1. Twice a day, it is necessary to clean the cages of the litter, and also to clean all the dirty corners.
2. The utensils used for feeding and giving birth to the offspring, as well as the one used for milking the cow, should be thoroughly washed and scalded with boiling water after each use.
3. In the first couple of days, you need to ensure that the calf drank colostrum in only a small sip. To better control this process it is recommended to use a drinking bowl with a pacifier.
4. Calf fattening can be done without a special nipple, but if it does not, colostrum is placed in a small bucket. To show the animal where the food is, you can moisten your finger a little in the colostrum.
5. When the animal grows slightly and will be able to drink completely independently, the bucket can be nailed to the wall, and the colostrum can be poured into it from the outside.

Milk feeding process

In order to successfully carry fattening calves according to the desired scheme, it is necessary to take care of the calf's contents separately from his mother. The whole point is that if you leave the offspring along with the parent, the calf will drink as much colostrum as he wants. Since such small animals do not have a sense of proportion, the offspring will drink too much, and an overload of the organism will lead to further problems with the dairy productivity of this individual.

It is necessary to watch, that the calf drank little by little also because the too large one-time dose of colostrum simply curls directly in the stomach, and this will cause a digestive problem. It is very important to carry out the first feeding on time. It does not matter at what time of day the calving occurred, for the next 30 minutes the calf should get its first dose of colostrum.

Feeding three-week calves

The diet of calves for up to three weeks is only colostrum, milk and water. But after the expiration of this period and further it will gradually expand and become more diverse. Here are some examples of what you can give to food a little grown-up calf:

• For feeding young calves, boiled potatoes can be used.
• It is still possible to give milk to the animal, but its amount should be getting smaller. You can use a milk replacer for calves to keep more.
• At a month's age, the diet is supplemented with hay. However, since the young animal still does not know how to chew, hay should be small and high quality, so that the calf learns the process of chewing food. At the same time for the prevention of worms, hay is moistened with a saline solution.
• When the animal turns a month, you can fully use a milk replacer for calves, which is called the reverse. Over time, the share of such nutrition in the diet of offspring can become more and more, completely replacing milk.

Necessity of proper feeding

The process of feeding the young is very different depending on the sex of the animal. It is very important to properly and balancedly fatten heifers, that is, female calves. There are several reasons for this:

1. It is important to monitor the protein content of food, since a small amount will lead to slow growth, and too much to worsen the use of this substance.
2. For the full growth and development of the female, it is necessary to provide it with a sufficient amount of calcium and phosphorus, since these two substances play a key role in the formation and growth of tissues and bones.
3. It is very important to monitor a sufficient number of vitamins such as A and D. To produce them, quality hay, fish meal is added to the food. And to stimulate the synthesis of vitamin D can also walk in the fresh air.
4. Feeds for female cattle should consist of such substances as whole milk, concentrates, juicy feed, hay, mineral top dressing.

Dosage of fodder for growth of heifer

In order to achieve rapid growth and development of the female, it is necessary to know the correct dosage of all the feeds, at what time they should be given.

1. Starting from the 15-20 day of the animal's life, he must start giving dry oatmeal. For its preparation, it is necessary to sift the product through a sieve, mix it with warm water, and then it can be poured into the feeder. And also this product can be fed through a bottle.
2. Beginning from the 11th day of life it is necessary to provide the animal with salt and chalk in sufficient quantity. The initial dosage is 5 grams of each product. The older the animal, the greater the dose of salt.
3. From the 10th to the 15th day of the life of a heifer, you can start giving her hay. However, for good growth and development, food should be only of high quality.
4. Juicy feed for cattle, which includes products such as root vegetables and potatoes, can be given to an animal since its second month of life.

The further development of heifer

Feeding a month-old calf is very important, but it will be necessary to follow the diet in the next few months. Beginning with the second month of his life, oatmeal in her diet should be replaced with corn or a mixture of concentrates. Silage and hay can be given in unlimited quantities. If there is a defect in the silo, then you can replace it with an abundant amount of root vegetables in the diet. Still some changes with a food occur at the moment when the pasture period begins.

1. Up to 3 or 4 months of the animal, the amount of concentrates in the diet and milk remains at the same level.
2. Silage and hay cease to give at all. Replace it with ordinary green grass.
3. If there are problems with grass quality in the pasture, the calves need additional nutrition in the form of sloping green plants.
4. If there are no problems with green grass, the amount of concentrates and root crops in the animal's diet is reduced by half. This happens also at 3-4 months old.

Growing meat breeds as a business

In addition to dairy cattle, there are also meat cattle. Breeding cattle as a business for selling meat is a very very profitable business. However, in order to grow a good offspring, you must create all the necessary conditions of detention. However, that's not all. To obtain a large amount of meat, you must choose one of the meat breeds of cattle. Since ordinary cows or bulls have a fairly small amount of muscle tissue in terms of its sale in the market.

Calves of meat breed

One of the fairly good meat breeds of cattle is Hereford. The great advantage of this kind of animal is that they tolerate all diseases perfectly, and their immunity is very strong. In addition, the offspring of these cows is much faster gaining weight than any other, and the animals themselves are quite hardy. Calves of meat breed Hereford are born with a weight of 34 to 36 kg, which is already quite a lot. With further proper care and feeding, babies gain 1 kg per day. It is worth noting that because of this rapid and powerful process of growth and development, calves do not have enough milk for their mother, and therefore they need additional feed from the first days of life.

Feeding bulls for slaughter

When breeding bulls for further slaughter, they should be kept for about 15-20 months by age. When the slaughter will remain about three months, it is necessary to begin intensified feeding of the individual. If everything is done correctly, then by the time of slaughter the animal will weigh more than 400 kg. The nutrition of a male animal for about half a year consists of milk, as well as a variety of feeds. In the event that the goby was born in the spring period, it can be fed not with coarse fodder, but with juicy and green grass. Such a diet will stimulate the rapid growth and development of the animal. At about the age of one year, the ration for the bull, which is meant for slaughter, should be half silage. In spring and summer, animals that are 12 to 18 months old can not be given concentrates. In this case, they should be kept only in one pasture.