Develop a nutrition plan now to ensure good cow body condition next calving season

Monday, April 2, 2018

Calving season has come and gone, meaning it is time for cow-calf operators to begin planning for next year’s calf crop.

Reproductive efficiency is the single most significant economic metric of a cow-calf enterprise, and beef cow nutrition plays a major role, reminds Leland McDaniel, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension agricultural educator for Carter and Jefferson counties.

“In layman’s terms, a beef cow’s primary function is to produce a healthy calf,” he said. “If a beef cow is not producing a healthy calf within a 365-day interval, something is amiss and the cattle operation’s profits are declining.”

Nature dictates that a cow’s priority for nutrient intake and utilization is to provide for her calf. If nutrition is limiting, the cow will undertake this primary task at the expense of her own flesh, pulling energy reserves from stored fat – external and intermuscular fat depositions – to provide milk for the nursing calf.

“Mother Nature is a wise old dame, and says we must take care of the living first before we can conceive another generation,” McDaniel said. “If a cow cannot adequately care for the nursing calf and maintain her own body, Mother Nature will not allow her to conceive another calf.”

Ensuring that cows have adequate stored energy reserves is visible through the animal’s body condition, and so the cattle industry has assigned a numerical system to differentiate between various degrees of stored fat reserves.

Poor body condition generally is set a level four on OSU’s cattle scoring system, reminds Glenn Selk, OSU Cooperative Extension emeritus animal scientist and editor of the university’s popular Cow-Calf Corner newsletter.

“A cow with a body condition score of four will appear thin,” he said. “Ribs in the rear half of the rib cage will be visible and the backbone will be showing.”

Thin to moderate cows are considered to have a body condition score of five. The last two or three ribs can be seen, and little evidence of fat is present in the brisket, over the ribs or around the tail head.

A cow with a body condition score of six will shot a good smooth appearance overall. The cow will have some fat in the brisket and over the tail head. The back will appear rounded, and fat can be felt over the ribs and pinbones.

Extensive research has proven there is a strong correlation between body condition and a cow’s ability to return to estrous and conceive in a timely manner. Considering the gestation period for cattle is nine months, the cow will need to cycle and rebreed within 60 to 90 days after calving if she is going to meet the 365-day calving interval.

“Cows that are in a body condition score of six or higher immediately prior to calving rebreed at a rate 50 percent greater than cows in a body condition score of four or less,” McDaniel said. “That means more pounds of weaned calf weight to market and older, more developed heifers from which to select replacements.”

Cow-calf producers should review their notes about the body condition scores of their animals and related feeding protocols. Armed with that information, producers can make sound decisions mindful of their herd’s future wintertime feeding needs through this summer and fall.

“There is an old adage: You cannot starve a profit into a cowherd,” McDaniel said. “The numbers bear it out.”