Winter milk: What does the freshly calved cow need to be fed?

Your winter milk herd would have started to calve down from the start of October, and now that we are roughly six weeks into calving, cows need to be fed right in order to fulfil the winter milk contract.

Although many cows in these herds are coming to the end of their lactation, the focus in the last couple of weeks has been getting these freshly calved cows in good condition to enter the herd and achieving a balanced diet to support their production.

The late lactation, spring calving cows must be factored into the feed plan for the winter months.

Freshly calved cows have a requirement for high levels of energy, protein and minerals in the diet, and it is important that this is offered to them.

Freshly calved cows have a low feed intake straight after calving, so it is important that the feed that is offered is of a high quality.

Winter milk diet

The feed costs associated with producing milk over the winter is very high, and there has already been extra costs incurred on farms this year due to poor grass growth, so it is important to set up a winter diet that does not require further costs.

When doing a winter feed plan, the plan needs to take into account silage quality, herd milk yield and calving pattern.

First and foremost, silage quality needs to be analysed in order to put together an accurate plan as winter herds need silage quality of about 75% dry matter digestibility (DMD).

Good quality silage will make life a lot easier during the winter months, as all supplementary feeding can be done through the parlour and will make it easier to give extra feed to freshly calved cows without feeding the late lactation cows.

The concentrate feeding levels at different levels of silage quality, as per Teagasc, are as follows:

As your silage DMD decreases, less energy will be in the diet of the cow, and will also restrict the total dry matter intake (DMI) due to its slower passage rate.

When more concentrates are fed to support production from poor quality silage, it will reduce the efficiency of fibre digestion which why we see a declining milk response for each additional kg of concentrate fed.

DM intakes of 20-22.5kg are required to meet nutrient demand for the freshly calved cow milking throughout winter.

There will be a better response to concentrate feeding on poor quality silage, but it will increase the total feed cost/L of milk produced.

The dairy cow will typically require about 35% neutral detergent fibre (NDF) in the diet, with 24 to 28% of this coming from forage to support rumen health and function.

Good quality silage will typically supply 40-45% NDF, but if forage intake is limited, it is important that concentrate feeds contain sources of digestible fibre such as beet pulp, soya hulls and maize distillers, in addition to cereals and high-quality protein sources.

Energy intake is crucial to drive milk production as milk protein concentration declines in response to insufficient energy.

Milk recording should be done as soon as possible, as decreased bulk tank milk solids will be down to the late lactation cows in the herd and a true picture of the winter milk diet for the freshly calved cows will be achieved through a milk recording.

Farmers should focus on achieving a high level of UFL/kg DM through silage and concentrate quality, while achieving a balanced PDI supply.