Case Study: Feeding Management In Dairy Cows

2255 Words5 Pages

Author : Nawa Binti Najib
Title : Feeding Management in Dairy Cows

INTRODUCTION

Dairy cattle are cattle that are bred for milk production purposes instead of meat and then used for dairy production. Most of Bos taurus or temperate dairy cattle are known as the popular breeds for dairy, such as Friesian-Holstein which rank the first among the dairy breeds. In Malaysia, the imported temperate dairy cattle reared in Malaysia can cause many problems such as can cause heat stress to the cattle since Malaysia is a hot and humid country, unlike the temperate countries.

Example of dairy cattle other than Friesian-Holstein are Jersey, Guernsey, Brown Swiss, Red Sindhi and Sahiwal. The body conformation of dairy cattle are they have big full …show more content…

However, no matter what condition the cows are, the farmers should always provide clean and fresh water at all time because we cannot force the cows to drink at a specific time, that is why it is important to provide it at all time so the cows can access the water when they need it.

The calculation for water intake is generally 0.1L/kg live weight which means 1kg of live weight of the cow needs 0.1L, and for lactation cows it needs 3L/1L milk produced (Dahlan Ismail, n.d.). So for a lactating cow, both calculation needs to be sum up to get the amount of water required by the cow.

Dairy Cattle Type Level of Milk Production
(kg milk/day) Water Requirement Rangea
(L/day) Average Typical Water Useb
(L/day)
Dairy calves
(1-4 months) - 4.9-13.2 9
Dairy heifers
(5-24 months) - 14.4-36.3 25
Milking cows 13.6 68-83 115 22.7 87-102 …show more content…

At this stage usually cow will loses weight because of low appetite and feed intake (Feeding management, n.d.). Thus, the body stores are used to make up deficits in the nutrient intake (Yusof Hamali Ahmad, n.d.). At this stage, the cow needs to be in peak production as soon as possible after calving so feeds given must be slightly more than recommended, until there is no more increase in production and just then the amount of feeds needs to be adjusted accordingly. The milk production will increase rapidly, peaking at 6th to 8th weeks. This period is the most critical period for a dairy cow which starts from parturition until milk production. Therefore, the objective for this phase is to increase feed intake as rapidly as possible to meet the energy

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