How Much Concentrates To Feed Your Cows

How Much Concentrates To Feed Your Cows

by Mark Flannery

It’s that time of year again when our dairy farmers are entering the busy season of calving and decisions have to be made on what to feed the cow and how much. The answer will vary from farm to farm as cow condition, calving stress, production merit, climate, availability of grass, quality of silage, are all different on farms. The most important thing is that when the cow calves that she needs to be replenished with top quality nutrition from the beginning. Anyone with silage tested will have been issued a feed guidance on the analysis form, for those who haven’t tested silage and even assuming it’s of good quality you are still looking at feeding approx. 7kg of a high quality dairy cube/ration. The below chart will explain exactly why these levels of feed are required (below chart is assuming silage quality of 76 DMD).

ASSUME 600KG Cow, Milking 30 litres /day, 76 DMD silage @ 0.86 UFL (excellent quality)
INTAKE 3% of body weight in DM = 600 X 3% =18KG
COWS REQUIRE 5.5 UFL for Maintenance + 0.43 UFL per Litre of milk produced
FEEDING REQ: 30 lit x 0.43 UFL + 5.5 UFL maintenance = 18.4 UFL DAILY REQ
FEEDING CONT: 14.2KG silage x 0.86 UFL = 12.21 UFL. Assume 1 UFL weight loss = 11..21 UFL. Requirement – Silage = Deficit. 18.4 – 11.21 = 7.19 UFL Deficit. LIFFEY MILLS DIAMOND DAIRY CUBE @ 0.95 UFL = 7.19 / 0.95 = 7.5KG DAIRY NUTS REQUIRED TO FILL THE GAP & MAINTAIN COW.

Contact your local Liffey Mills rep for any further information.

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