5 Tips For Beef Cow Herd Winter Supplementation

Now that fall is here and the first blast of winter weather is quickly approaching, have you thought about what that means to your cow herd? Keeping cattle in good condition through the fall and into early winter ultimately helps insulate the animal and minimize the amount of feed required later in the winter season.

Kevin Glaubius, Director of Nutrition and Technical Sales at BioZyme Inc., says now is the time to take an honest evaluation of body condition and match your feeding program to the needs of your cows. St. Joseph, MO-based BioZyme manufactures vitamin and mineral supplements for a variety of livestock.

"The bottom line is, early cold stress can result in a snowball effect if left unchecked. Cold temperatures significantly raise energy requirements. Undeveloped winter hair coats, wet hides and wind all combine to magnify this increase in energy requirements," said Glaubius. "The combination of calving cows and colder environmental conditions can easily result in producers not providing enough feed energy and cows losing weight."

So what can producers do to manage the cold stress and feed adequately during the winter months? Glaubius offers some tips:

1) Feed higher quality hay (with more energy) and expect cows to increase intake. Without a forage analysis, you cannot be exactly sure of your hay's energy level, which can lead to inadequate nutrition.  BioZyme offers complimentary hay testing and nutrition analysis to producers through its nationwide dealer network and Area Sales Managers. For more information, visit http://vitaferm.com/testyourhay/.

2) Feed cattle a supplement that contains BioZyme's Amaferm to improve digestibility of feed and helps ensure that they are extracting all of the energy possible. Research shows that feeding a supplement that contains Amaferm has similar benefits to feeding at least 1lb. of grain.

3) Consider moving cows to locations with protection from the wind and wet weather. The energy requirement of beef cattle increases about 3% for each degree that the wind chill is below 59 degrees F.  This increases even further in wet conditions and prior to fully developing a winter hair coat.