Drought is a reality for many of our dairy farmers.
Many farms in south-west Victoria have no grass cover, just bare soil and a few weeds which hold no nutrient value and can harbour anti-nutritional factors or toxins.
So, what to do?
All cattle will be affected, but is most drastic for cows coming into calving and lactation.
Insufficient feed can retard the final gestation phases of the foetus, leading to weak, smaller calves.
For the cow, low energy and unbalanced nutrient diets can result in body condition scores going backwards. This is at a time where she needs to be on a rising plane of nutrition to ensure she has enough body reserves to cope with increasing demands.
As cattle utilise forage fibre for energy from rumen fermentation, lack of these feedstuffs severely limits their ability to generate enough energy to meet basic requirements.
Lack of balanced mineral supply means cows do not have sufficient levels to prepare for the increased demands due to foetal calf development and lactation.
This is not just for calcium, but all essential minerals in correct balance.
Feeding single source materials, such as cereals or protein sources (such as peas and beans), does not constitute a balanced diet.
This can actually make deficiencies worse, due to digestion and absorption conflicts and higher metabolic costs, where physiological safeguards are firefighting to try to regain some semblance of balance to support maintenance, let alone the demands of gestation and lactation.
Overall outcome? Poorer condition scores, increased tissue stress, leading to more infections and welfare problems.
The big issue is that it is easier and cheaper to maintain cows in good condition by using a higher fibre balanced diet to meet these essential requirements, rather than trying to bring her back from a depleted state.
This will help overcome the additional financial problems relating to poor quality calves (which need more care, veterinary costs and time to reach weaning) and lower yields of poor quality milk.
By Dr Lucy Waldron, Head of Nutrition & Technical Services for Reid Stockfeeds.