Close-Up Dry Cow Feeding Strategies

A cow's close-up dry period begins 21 days before her estimated calving date. An effective feeding program for close-up dry cows can help reduce the incidence of metabolic disorders, improve feed intake after calving and decrease fat mobilization to avoid overload on the liver. The payoff for grouping and feeding cows for this unique stage is increased milk production and reduced animal health care costs.

  1. Goals

    • A close-up dry cow diet is designed to allow cows to adjust gradually to the higher-grain diet fed at the start of the next lactation, and should result in higher milk production. Micro-organisms within the cow's rumen are then able to adapt to feed changes gradually so cows are less likely to go off feed or develop metabolic disorders. A more nutrient-dense diet is also important to compensate for the lowered feed intake typically seen just before calving.

    Feeding Forages

    • Louisiana State University dairy nutritionist Charles Hutchison recommends feeding high-quality, long-stemmed grassy hay free-choice to keep the rumen functioning optimally. Grassy hays are a better choice than high-quality legume hays, such as alfalfa. The high calcium and potassium content of alfalfa and the potential for overfeeding energy or protein raises the risk of metabolic disorders such as milk fever after calving. Low potassium hays are generally found in fields where manure hasn't been used as fertilizer. Forages can be tested to determine potassium content. There is also growing research to support feeding close-up dry cows moderate-energy diets containing approximately 30 percent straw, to allow the rumen to fill without overfeeding, according to Noah Litherland, University of Minnesota extension dairy scientist.

    Gradually Increase Grains

    • As cows get within three weeks of calving, increasing grains such as corn and barley in the diet to a range of 8 to 12 lbs. per cow daily enables starch to stimulate the papillae of the rumen, allowing these finger-like projections to lengthen and enlarge. This means an increased surface area in the rumen to absorb nutrients so that after calving, cows are able to more easily handle a diet high in energy.

    Additives

    • Buffers should not be used in dry cow diets since the sodium in them can have the same effect as potassium in making cows more susceptible to metabolic disorders and other health concerns (see Reference 3). Sodium chloride salts may cause udder edema and should also be avoided. Include less than 100 grams of calcium and 40 grams of phosphorus to reduce the incidence of milk fever. Another alternative for preventing milk fever without reducing calcium levels is to feed anionic salts, which are minerals high in chloride and sulfur relative to sodium and potassium, to shift the dietary cation-anion balance to a more anionic or negative direction. Unlike sodium chloride salts, anionic salts are not linked with udder edema. Common anionic salt choices are ammonium sulfate and calcium sulfate (see Reference 1).

    Considerations

    • Some dairy nutritionists believe that the diet changes traditionally saved for the last 21 days prior to calving should be utilized throughout the entire dry period. Pennsylvania State University professor Gabriella Varga says that a single dry cow diet strategy gets cows ready for their upcoming lactation. When far-off dry cows are fed a high-forage diet instead, they may lose their ability to absorb volatile fatty acids (VFA), which are important to make glucose in the liver and milk fat in the mammary glands.