Key points of feeding and management of calves

Calves are calves that are 3 months old or 4-6 months old after birth. The correct feeding of calves is very important to improve the survival rate of calves.

1. Feed colostrum

The milk secreted by cows 5-7 days after calving is called colostrum. Colostrum also contains lysozic acid and antibodies, which can kill a variety of pathogenic microorganisms. After colostrum enters the stomach of calves, it can stimulate the digestive glands to secrete a large number of digestive enzymes to promote the early activity of gastrointestinal function.

In order to make the calf strong, rapid growth and development, the sooner you eat colostrum after birth, the better, and eat more. Generally, the calves should be fed the first colostrum when they can stand on their own 30-60 minutes after birth. Do not procrastinate for no reason, let alone pour out colostrum. The amount of colostrum fed depends on the health of the calf's weight. Calves around 35kg, physically healthy, the first feeding should try to eat enough, generally can eat 1-1.5kg. In the future, it can be fed according to the weight of 1-6-1-7 of body weight.

Colostrum is fed for 5-7 days, 4 times a day. The feeding time of colostrum should be the same as that of the calf mother, so that it can be fed immediately after milking. If the colostrum temperature is low, heat it to 37-38 ℃ before feeding, so as not to cause indigestion. But heating can not be too high, if more than 40 ℃, colostrum will solidify, not easy to digest.

? 2. Feed regular breast milk

Calves can be transferred to normal milk after being fed colostrum for one week. At present, the feeding amount of calves in most dairy farms in China is 300-400kg, and the lactation period is 2-3 months. On the other hand, a few large or high-yielding cattle can be fed up to 600-800kg and the lactation period is 3-4 months. The specific feeding is that in the one-month-old stage with regular milk as the main source of nutrition, the daily feeding amount is about 10.2-3 months of calf weight, that is, the transition stage, with the increase of forage intake, the amount of normal milk feeding decreases week by week, that is, from milk feeding to plant feed.

? 3. Early feeding of plant feed

From 1 week after birth, calves can be fed with high-quality hay, trained to eat and chewed freely, which can prevent calves from licking dirt or dirty grass and promote the early development of stomach. The calves were trained to eat concentrate feed 10 days after birth. Wheat bran, bean cake, corn flour and a small amount of fish meal, salt and bone meal were mixed into dry powder, which was fed about 15-25g a day and allowed to be licked in the trough. Generally, 20-30g carrots or sugar beets were added to the mixed concentrate 20 days after birth. At the age of 2 months, the daily feeding amount reached 1-1.5kg, and at the age of 3 months, it could be increased to 2-3kg to promote the development of digestive organs.

? 4. Early weaning

The so-called early weaning is to reduce the milk consumption of the past 5-6 months from 800-1200kg to 2-3 months, so as to prepare nutritious and accurate artificial milk or milk substitute to breed calves. In this way, a lot of "feed milk" can be saved and the production cost can be reduced.

In addition to early feeding hay, the key to the success of early weaning is to make a good weaning plan.

1) within one week after birth, calves were fed with colostrum three times a day, each time 2kg.

2) at the age of 8-20 days, normal milk was fed with 2kg twice a day, each time, and trained to eat milk substitute and high-quality hay.

3) normal milk was fed at the age of 21-60 days, twice a day, 2kg every day for the first 35 days, and 1kg every time for the last 5 days. The daily feeding amount of milk substitute gradually increased to 1.2kg. While training to eat silage.

4) at the age of 1-180 days, the milk substitute gradually increased from 1.2kg to 3.4kg. Eat hay and silage casually.

5) Milk substitute formula: bean cake 40%, wheat bran 20-10%, corn flour 40-25%, sorghum noodle 20-10%, additive 1%, salt 1%, bone meal 1%.

5. Provide adequate drinking water

One week after birth, begin to replenish water alone every day, or add an appropriate amount of milk to the water to induce it to drink. The tap water must be boiled and cooled to 37-38 ℃, then supplied separately after breast-feeding, and then drink clean cold water after 10-15 days. In the warm season, a sink should be set up on the playground to hold clean water for calves to drink freely.