Want to feed cattle well in winter? Master these seven tips

Clever straw processing. Single-variety forage lacks nutrition and easily causes cattle to lose weight and become thin. If the straw is ammoniated with a clever treatment, cattle will love to eat it. The method is: chop wheat straw, rice straw, etc. finely into 2-3 cm short pieces, add 4 kg of urea to every 100 kg of chopped wheat straw or rice straw, first dissolve the urea in 40 kg of water, then stir it into the chopped wheat straw and chopped rice straw. After mixing evenly, put it into a large vat or cement pit, press it down firmly, seal it tightly, and keep out air for ammoniation. After one month, the vat can be opened for feeding. Ammoniated forage is soft, fragrant, and easy to digest.

Clever forage matching. In winter, feeding cattle should try to achieve forage diversity, matching short grass with long grass and high-quality grass with lower-quality grass, such as wheat straw and rice straw with green hay, with sorghum leaves, with peanut vines, with alfalfa, etc. Mixed evenly this way, cattle love to eat it, and the nutrition is comprehensive.

Clever concentrate matching. When feeding concentrate, soft and hard types should be matched. Hard feeds such as corn and soybeans should be mixed with soft feeds such as bran and powder feed when feeding. Start by feeding grass first, add a little feed when the cattle are more than half full, add more feed when they are about to be full, and add fragrant feed, such as roasted and ground soybeans mixed into the grass. Although there is no green grass, the cattle can still eat their fill at every meal.

Clever urea supplementation. Feeding urea is an important measure to supplement protein and can be fed in appropriate amounts in winter. Generally, calves over 6 months old are fed 40-60 grams per day, fattening cattle 70-100 grams, and adult cows 150 grams per day. Urea has poor palatability, so it can be mixed with concentrate at 1% and then mixed with grass for feeding. Do not let them drink water within half an hour after feeding.

Clever feed amount arrangement. In winter, the days are short and the nights are long. Not only should they be fed well during the day, but an extra trough should be fed at night, with 13-15 kg of grass fed per day.

Clever drinking water warming. In winter, cattle should not be given cold water. They should drink 25°C warm water, and a little salt and a little soybean powder should be added to the warm water. This way cattle love to drink it, and it can also help reduce internal heat and reduce inflammation.

Clever sanitation scraping and brushing. Manure in the cattle shed should be removed frequently, the shed should be swept clean, and dry chopped grass and soil should be spread frequently to keep it dry and sanitary and prevent cattle hoof disease. Every day, lead the cattle outdoors to bask in the sun, and use a scraper or brush to scrape and brush the cattle's body. This can promote blood circulation and prevent cattle from developing sores and ringworm.