Feeding calves from 0 to 6 months: a step-by-step description at home
Feeding allows the calf to grow and develop. At first, his food is only milk, but from a certain age they begin to feed him with food that adult animals eat. Consider the features of feeding calves up to six months and after, what and in what proportions should be given to them, what vitamin supplements can be fed additionally.
How to feed calves at home
At half a year the calf is taken away from its mother, until this age it has the opportunity to drink only milk. After six months, his diet consists of what adult animals eat. Therefore, you can divide the first year of the life of the cattle into half a year.
Up to six months
The time from 0 to 6 months in the life of a bovine is called the suckling period due to the fact that he mainly drinks mother's milk. The first food of a newly born baby is colostrum. This is a special substance, in addition to nutrients, it contains hormones and antibodies necessary to activate digestion and immunity. Colostrum should be given to a newborn in the first 2 hours after birth. Feeding with colostrum from the first days should occur 5-6 times a day. After 1-1.5 weeks, colostrum disappears, and the calf begins to drink milk. How many times a day a calf should drink milk depends on its age.
Already from the first days after calving, calves can be given water. Up to 2 weeks - boiled, then raw. For small calves, 0.5-1 liter of fluid per day is sufficient.
A month-old calf should be fed with boiled potatoes, crushed potatoes or rolled grain. Per day you need to feed 1 kg of the mixture per animal. For a two-month-old calf, the diet is replenished with premixes, which should include vitamins A, D, E, mineral elements, chalk and s alt, sulfur.Taken in the right proportions, the components help the animal to fully absorb nutrients from food, promote growth, development, and weight gain.
From 3 to 6 months old, calves need more protein. At this age, they can be fed root crops, compound feed, crushed grain, bran, vegetables, nutritional supplements, bean hay. Vegetables and root vegetables must first be grated on a coarse grater, then cut into small pieces so that the animals do not swallow large pieces. Feeding frequency - every 8 hours
If a calf is raised without a cow, then from 3 weeks old it can do without milk, instead, the baby is given a substitute, vitamins and premixes. It is transferred to adult food at the same time as the suckling calf. It is impossible to give small animals low-quality, moldy or mixed with poisonous herbs hay, bread, beets mixed with potatoes. These foods lead to indigestion.A step-by-step feeding scheme can be seen in the table.
| Age | Food |
| Colostrum, milk, water | |
| Milk, rolled or crushed grains, boiled vegetables | |
| Milk, grains, root vegetables, hay, grass, vegetables, premixes | |
| Milk, feed, bean hay, root crops, nutritional supplements, vegetables, grains | |
| Meat milk replacer, grain, grass , hay, premixes, vitamin and mineral supplements, root vegetables, vegetables |
In 6 months, a calf can eat more than 200 kg of grass or hay (wagon), 100-120 kg of root crops and the same amount of concentrates.
Features of diet after six months
After 6 months, the calf must be weaned from milk and transferred completely to adult food. The nutritional requirements of six-month-old cattle differ by sex: bulls grow faster and consume more energy, which means they should get more food.
The diet of heifers should provide animals with such a volume of nutrients that by 1.5 years they weigh 360-400 kg. At the same time, it is important to calculate it so that the cows do not experience a lack of substances, but also do not overfeed.
From excess, they form a meat type of constitution, animals get fat, puberty comes early, but reproductive disorders are possible.
For 1 kg of weight gain during this period, the heifer needs up to 6 feed. units Bulls are fed more concentrates, heifers - less. The main product in the diet for cattle at this time is grass or hay, additional products are grain, fodder beets and other root crops, fresh vegetables.After 10 months of age, calves can be fed with straw. It can replace up to a third of hay.
The need for water in growing animals is increased, they can drink 3 times more liquid than adults. The frequency of watering six-month-old cows is at least 3 times a day.
How to accustom to compound feed?
Compound feed for cattle has a different composition and is intended for animals of different ages. Starter formulas can be fed up to 3 months of age. In addition to nutrients, the mixtures contain probiotics, which prevent disorders of the calves' not yet perfect digestion.
You need to accustom to compound feed gradually, giving it in small portions. In general, animals like the taste of combined feeds and eat them willingly. Since the compound feed is dry, the calves need to be given plenty of water, water must be constantly poured into the drinkers.
Popular vitamin supplements for calves
The composition of vitamin supplements produced for cattle includes substances necessary for the growth of young animals. The industry produces finished products that can be introduced into the diet of calves from an early age.
Trivitamin
This is a complex of 3 essential vitamins (A, D3, E) dissolved in oil. Available in ampoules for injection and powder for oral use.
Trivitamin can be combined with feed additives and medicines.
I like1 Dislike"Biovit-80"
Preparation - brown powder, dried mass of culture liquid of bacteria Streptomyces aureofaciens.
The drug is given to calves with feed, milk, milk replacer, water.
I like it I don't like it"Eleovit"
The preparation contains 11 vitamins, vikasol and amino acids.
Eleovit can be combined with supplements and medicines.
I like it I don't like itGavryusha
Premix containing vitamins and minerals to be added to feed.
There is no need to use other feed additives while feeding calves with Gavryusha.
I like it I don't like it"Nucleopeptide"
The drug is made from an extract of the spleen of cattle, it is used to increase weight gain in fattening animals and increase the resistance of calves to infections.
The use of the drug reduces the time for fattening and rearing calves, helps save resources spent on rearing. In order to feed calves from birth to 1-1.5 years, it is necessary to correctly compose a diet, transfer calves to adult food in time. The products should contain proteins, carbohydrates, mineral elements, vitamins, fats in the proportions that animals need at this stage of life.
I like1 DislikeFinal ranking table"Trivitamin"one"Nucleopeptide"one"Biovit-80""Eleovit""Gavryusha"Recommended
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