“As dairy farmers, you feed a properly balanced
ration to your cows designed to optimize health and productivity. So do you do the same for your calves?” Todd McDonough from Land O’Lakes Animal Milk posed
this question during one of the recent Calf Roundtable Discussion meetings
hosted by Landmark Services Cooperative.
When considering how a calf utilizes the nutrients they are fed,
McDonough encourages both farmers and nutritionists to remember the acronym “M.I.G.”,
which stands for Maintenance, Immune System, and Growth. This is the order in which a calf partitions
nutrients within their small bodies. Young
calves have such a high nutrient demand just for maintenance simply to keep
themselves alive, many calves are fed a diet deficient in vitamins, protein,
and fat. This compromises a calf’s
ability to develop a strong immune system, let alone partition any nutrients
for growth of the calf. In addition, the
maintenance requirement can increase significantly based on stress, weather, environment,
or health challenges. Such challenges
partition even more nutrients to maintenance, leaving less to be used for
immune system development or meeting the farmer’s growth goals.
When considering how to feed the animals that will
dictate the future profitability of your dairy farm, make sure you are
balancing a proper diet for them. Tools
exist for balancing a diet of milk and calf starter for young calves, and a
representative from the Animal Nutrition Division at Landmark Services
Cooperative can help you do this.
