A routine schedule for pushing up feed to lactating cows has become a hallmark of excellent dairy management. Many farms schedule this task multiple times around the clock, and may even employ robotic feed pushers to ensure cows have continuous access to feed.
But what about the heifers?
Educators from Cornell Cooperative Extension underscore the critical nature of feed push-ups for growing replacements as well. They note it is a practice that can directly impact lifetime herd performance, in terms of both feeding behavior and skeletal development.
“We have emphasized so much, multiple feedings or pushing up feed for our lactating cows,” says Dave Balbian, now-retired regional dairy specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Central New York, on an episode of Cornell’s “Troubleshooting Herd Health Issues on Your Dairy” podcast.
“This is an area that really lacks with some of our heifers,” Balbian notes. “The feed is there but they can’t reach it, so it might as well not be there.”
Balbian says early feed training may build lifelong habits that can be damaging to a herd.
“I think some of these slug-feeding habits that we sometimes see in our lactating cows can begin with heifers that are only fed once a day and maybe only pushed up one other time,” he explained. “When the feed is there, they’re hungry, because they haven’t had feed in a long time.”
In another episode of the podcast, Cornell regional dairy and field crops consultant Margaret Quaassdorf says the act of hungry heifers reaching for feed actually can cause lifelong skeletal abnormalities as well.
“They will exert a huge amount of pressure against a curved neck rail or head lock in order to get to that feed,” she says. “A heifer has to splay her front feet, kind of like a giraffe drinking, to get to it.”
Quaassdorf adds: “Against a concrete barrier, this causes compromised bone growth and foot integrity, and poor conformation that will stick with them the rest of their lives. It may even lead to early removal from the herd due to poor feet and legs.”
On a more fundamental level, denying access to feed also interferes with other basic aspects of heifer development.
“We’re trying to develop a rumen and gain pounds. It takes a lot of nutrients to put on that much tissue,” Quaassdorf says. “Inadequate feed push-ups affect the potential growth of heifers and the nutrients needed for their immune systems to function. This is completely preventable with proper facility design and keeping that feed within reach.”
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