If a villager has a cow in his backyard, he understands perfectly well that the main condition for obtaining good milk yield is complete feeding. With an unbalanced diet, the quality and quantity of milk is significantly reduced.
What to feed a cow
Depending on productivity, a dairy cow needs 70 kg or more balanced feed per day. For ruminants, the basis of feeding is roughage: hay, straw, haylage (chopped hay). She needs juicy feed: roots and tubers, silage and green grass, cereals and legumes. To increase milk yield, it is necessary to include concentrated and combined feed in the diet. These include compound feed with vitamin supplements, cake, grain waste, vitamin and mineral supplements, bone meal, etc.
Hay for feeding animals should be of good quality, have a pleasant smell, and be free from mold and rot. Straw and grain waste needs preliminary preparation before feeding: they need to be crushed and steamed with hot water, mineral fertilizers must be added. These foods fill the digestive tract of animals and are easy to digest. Silage and haylage are valuable nutritious feed that can significantly increase the productivity of the cow. Succulent feed plays an equally important role: beets, turnips, carrots, potatoes. At the same time, the livestock breeder should not forget about the need to wash the root crops from dirt and grind them - when eating large tubers, the animal runs the risk of choking, this is especially important when feeding fresh potatoes.
How much feed does a productive cow need?
Since the basis of feed is hay, it is required to prepare it in abundance: for one adult large-horned animal per day, 3-5 kg are needed per 100 kg of live weight, within 10-15 kg per day. The amount of feed required for feeding for one day must be multiplied by the number of days in the stall period to obtain the total amount of feed required. Straw and chaff will need to be given to the cow at 5 kg per head per day. Haylage rate 8-12 kg per day; for silage the standard is 3-5 kg per day. There is also a standard for root crops: fodder beets, potatoes 15-20 kg each, carrots 10-12 kg, sugar beets 5-8 kg.
Concentrated feed occupies a special place in cattle feeding. The best basis for them is forage crops: oats, wheat, barley. It is necessary to carefully monitor the quality of the feed - moldy grain is dangerous for the health of the cow. There is a simple calculation of the amount of compound feed required: for each kilogram of milk, you need to feed 2 kg of grain feed. In this case, the cow will receive a sufficient amount of nutrients so as not to lose live weight and not to reduce the milk yield. It is recommended to give them in a pre-prepared form, like bran. You will also need to give the cow chalk and phospho-bone meal.
You need to feed the animals 2-3 times a day, distributing the daily rate in equal parts. Water is necessary for animals in sufficient quantities, but not less than 30-40 liters per feeding, its temperature should not be lower than 8-10 ° C. It is necessary to provide cows with regular exercise in the fresh air. A prerequisite for the successful keeping of cattle is a good sanitary condition of the farmyard. Fulfillment of all these requirements will allow getting good milk yield and keeping Burenka's health and productivity for many years.
