Feeding Rates for Young Stock and Cows 



Consumption of forage and concentrates per head depends on the 

 animal's age, size, rate of growth, and production, and upon economic con- 

 ditions through their effect on management. The type of management pro- 

 vided by a dairyman is one of the most variable factors. 



The feed inputs for producing home-raised replacements that were used 

 in the budgetary analysis in this study are given in Table 4. They were 

 typical quantities of forage and concentrates fed to calves and young cat- 

 tle on a sample of New Hampshire dairy farms. 



Table 4. Typical Feed Inputs per Head per Year for Young Stock 

 From Birth to Freshening, 62 New Hampshire Dairy Farms 



Feed Unit Quantity 



Milk Pound 75 



Milk substitutes Pound 50 



Grain Pound 1,200 

 Hay 



Only forage fed Ton 2.8 



Fed with silage Ton 1.9 

 Silage fed with hay 



(hay equivalent) Ton .9 



Pasture (hay equivalent) Ton 2.0 



The age-growth relationship with these inputs for 180 head of Holstein 

 young stock are shown in Figure 2. A fitted curve of the relationship is 

 compared with normal weights for animals at various ages as reported 

 by Matthews and Fohrman.^ In Figure 2 the growth rates in the early 

 ages are close to the normal growth rate, but as the young stock advance 

 into the yearling age group, the rate of growth slackens considerably. This 

 may be due partly to the fact that young dairy cattle are commonly pastured 

 on relatively poor permanent pasture. Poor feeding and retarded growth 

 in heifers, however, probably does not affect adversely their lifetime per- 

 formance. Experiments of the effects of nutrition during the early life of 

 dairy heifers, for which only preliminary results are available, indicate 

 that the heifers that are poorly fed before the first parturition may have 

 as good, or better, lifetime productive and reproductive performance as 

 the heifers that are fed liberal rations according to Morrison standards.'* 



The feeding rates for cows that were used in the budgetary analysis 

 of this study are given in Tables 5 and 6. They are based on physical re- 

 lationships observed under controlled feeding experiments, but records ob- 

 tained in the farin survey indicate that they are representative of the level 

 of feeding on New Hampshire dairy farms. The 32 Holstein herds included 

 in the survey sample consumed an average of -5.3 tons of forage as hay 

 equivalent per cow annuallv. Variations in the quantity per cow in differ- 

 ent herds were due to availability of forage and the level of grain feeding. 



^Matthews, C. A. and Fohrman, M. H., Beltsville Growth Standards for Holstein 

 Cattle, U.S.D.A. Tech. Bui. 1099. 1954. 



4Reid, J. T., "Effects of Several Levels of Nutrition Upon Growth, Reproduction, 

 and Lactation in Cattle," 1953 Cornell Nutrition Conference Proceedings. 



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