an animal's daily requirements (except voluntary intake) are usually subdivided into the different activities in which the animal may be involved. These are:
Maintenance: the nutrients required to keep the body functioning with no productive output
Activity: movement such as standing up and walking requires energy. In practice, the energy required for activity is a small proportion of total requirements and doesn't vary considerably between different animals.
Lactation: the nutrients required to achieve a given level of milk production of a given composition.
Growth: important in meat-producing animals
Pregnancy: nutrient requirements related to pregnancy, only become significant in the last third of pregnancy
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Dairy - Annual Calendar
Mainly based on summer and winter.
Ration Sheets (not set in stone)
October – March Indoors
Mainly grass silage or maize silage
Concentrates
April – September outdoors
Main diet grass
Some supplementary hay/straw + concentrates
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Feeding Concentrates in the Parlour
We can monitor:
Milk yield
Body condition score
Advantages of feeding concentrate in the milking parlour:
Less stressed as they are focused on food.
Can quantify how much food they are eating.
Can ratio the food properly.
If they are more relaxed, they could produce more milk.
Keeps energy up whilst they are being milked.
Make sure they get the right minerals.
Faster milking.
Cows come in more easily.
Disadvantages of feeding concentrate in the milking parlour:
Milk could be contaminated.
Can cost more.
Cause weight gain.
Concentrates can be fed as many times as the cow is being milked (up to twice per day)
Number of concentrates limited.
Restless cows during milking as they are competitive eaters.
Poor while they eat.
Risk of faeces and urine in the pit where the farmers are standing.
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