Matters needing attention in raising calves: calves should be supplemented with concentrated roughage as soon as possible after birth. Generally, they can be trained to feed after birth 1 week. When calves are born for about 2 weeks, they can start to put high-quality hay into the grass fence to let them feed freely.
Weaning time:
Cows are often weaned early in the process of raising cows, and even some calves are artificially fed just after birth. Unlike cows, beef cattle do not need to be weaned too early because there is no demand for milk production.
The rumen digestibility of calves is poor before 2 months old, so try to feed on breast milk, and the milk secreted by cows at this time has high nutritional value, which is very beneficial to the growth and development of calves.
With the continuous growth of calves, the demand for nutrition becomes more and more, and the nutritional value of cow milk will decrease, so calves need to eat some forage to meet the nutrition needed for growth and development. Under normal circumstances, calves can eat more forage when they are 3 months old.
At this time, we can choose to wean calves according to the specific situation. We can choose to wean calves at the age of 3 months when their feeding ability is strong or cows are poor and lactation is low, and we can choose to wean calves at the age of 4 months when their feeding ability is poor or cows are good and lactation is high.
Feed requirements:
Although calves are basically used to collecting hay and concentrate diets when they are weaned at the age of 3 months, the rumen is not fully developed at this time. At the same time, in order to ensure that the feed intake can meet the growth and development needs of calves, it is required that the combination of concentrate and coarse feed in calf diets must be reasonable. Generally, the ratio of concentrate to roughage is1:1.
Coarse materials are supplied as high-quality hay, grass and silage corn. Straw feed can be gradually added after 4 months of age. Generally, at 9 months of age, the feeding amount of straw feed should not exceed one third of all coarse materials.
The main requirements for preparing calf diet are digestibility, cleanliness and hygiene, and no pollution. Most of the feed schemes adopted for female calves are from 6 months old, calculated according to the consumption 170~225 kg concentrate. Whether mixed concentrate or roughage, the feeding amount is from less to more, and gradually increases. Calves may have dull coat color and drooping abdomen after early weaning.