Dry Cow Management

For its September meeting the North Down Grassland Management Team visited Peter Merron's farm in Portaferry. Since most farmers are now entering their main calving season the subject of the meeting was dry cow management.

The guest speaker was Des Rice of Nutritional Services International. He recommended that cows were given a dry period of 6 - 8 weeks and 1st calvers a dry period of 8 weeks. Drying off in his opinion was often too complicated and too drawn out. He advocated a simple approach were the cow was dried off quickly and fed either straw for a few days or put in a bare pasture to keep the milk off her.

Des Rice told the group that one of the most important things about dry cow management was achieving the right condition score. For dry cows the ideal condition score lies between 3.0 and 3.5 depending on the breeding of the animal (Holstein or Fresian). He recommended that upon drying off, a cow should be put into one of three groups:

1. Too fat group (condition score of 4.0 or over) - These cows should get restricted silage and ad-lib straw.
2. O.K. group (condition score between 3.0 and 3.5) - These cows should get stemmy silage or a mixture of silage and straw.
3. Too thin group (condition score of 2.5 or less) -These cows should get good quality silage. Some farmers keep these cows in with the milking herd.

Des recommended leaving an area of first cut silage to grow stemmy and then harvest it with second cut as this makes ideal feed for dry cows.

In the last three to four weeks prior to calving all cows should be brought together and fed stemmy silage or silage and straw and a kilo of a high protein pre-calver meal. He said that achieving the right condition score and feeding the meal which contains necessary vitamins and minerals will make calving easier, reduce calf mortality, and improve fertility and yield in the forthcoming lactation.

Back to Main Page

Page created 30th September 1997