If you don't pay attention to these few points when raising cattle in winter, the cattle will struggle to get through the winter and you'll suffer big losses
Recently, temperatures across most of the south have dropped below ten degrees, and many areas in the north have seen heavy goose-feather snow. For beef cattle farmers, this is quite a test. In freezing weather, the nutritional condition of beef cattle is generally very poor, which brings a lot of difficulties for getting beef cattle through the winter. Therefore, only by doing a good job of protective measures can beef cattle better get through the winter. Below we'll talk about what to pay attention to when raising cattle in winter? Beef cattle farmers far and wide had better read carefully!
1. Build up fat condition before winter. To ensure beef cattle get through the winter safely, you must build up autumn fat condition after autumn. Taking advantage of the neither-cold-nor-hot autumn weather, when beef cattle have a good appetite, you should make good use of green grass during grazing. When cattle eat well and absorb more nutrients, they can store up some fat to resist severe cold and stay healthy.
2. Keep the cattle shed warm. A warm cattle shed can reduce the loss of body heat from the cattle, so before winter you must repair the cattle shed well, and there must be no drafty wind blowing in.
3. Feed must be sufficient. Cattle have a large stomach capacity, so the daily coarse feed per head must not be less than 6 kg, and forage and concentrate feed should be more varied; you cannot keep feeding just one kind of feed. You can use a combination of pasture grass, corn, rice straw and stalk, and techniques such as silage, yellow storage, micro-storage and ammoniation to produce coarse feed.
4. Drinking water must be sufficient. Insufficient drinking water: the metabolism and body temperature of beef cattle are regulated by water, because water has a good heat-retaining effect. When watering, sprinkle a handful of bran on the surface of the water to prevent gulping and water-related injury. If warm water is available for drinking, it is even more helpful for keeping cows warm and protecting the fetus.
5. Do not feed straw feed in a rough-and-ready way; straw feed is coarse and hard. It must be crushed before feeding, with 3-4 cm being suitable. Be careful not to feed it whole just to save trouble; crushed straw has a high utilization rate, and beef cattle eat well and gain fat easily.
6. Feeding must be at fixed times and in fixed amounts. Feed cattle promptly; if beef cattle are not fed when they should be, and there is no regularity, it easily causes digestive disorders. Because of excessive hunger, cattle will overeat and drink excessively, develop some problems and trigger some diseases. So you should feed at fixed times and in fixed amounts; maintaining a normal digestive state is good for cattle to gain fat and become strong.
7. Do not feed moldy or spoiled feed; feed is rich in nutrients. After becoming moldy and spoiled, it turns into toxic substances, causing beef cattle feed poisoning, and after eating it, beef cattle sometimes die in large numbers. Therefore, never feed moldy or spoiled feed, and you must strengthen the storage management of feed.
Tips for raising cattle in winter
1. Clever treatment of straw. Single forage and lack of nutrition easily lead to cattle losing fat and becoming thin. If the straw is skillfully treated by ammoniation, cattle will love to eat it. The method is: cut wheat straw, rice straw, etc. into short sections 2-3 cm long, add 4 kg of urea to every 100 kg of chopped wheat straw or rice straw. In actual operation, first fully dissolve the urea in 40 kg of water, then stir it into the chopped wheat straw or chopped rice straw. After mixing evenly, put it into a large vat or cement pit, compress it, seal it tightly, and carry out ammoniation. After 1 month, the vat can be opened for feeding. Ammoniated forage is soft and fragrant, and easy to digest.
2. Clever matching of forage. When feeding cattle in winter, try as much as possible to achieve variety in forage, matching short grass with long grass, and high-quality grass with lower-grade grass. For example, wheat straw and rice straw matched with green hay, sorghum leaves, peanut vines, alfalfa, etc. Mixed evenly like this, it both suits the cattle's appetite and provides fairly comprehensive nutrition.
3. Clever combination of concentrate feed. When feeding concentrate feed, combine hard and soft feeds, such as feeding hard feeds like corn and soybeans together with soft feeds like bran and powder feed. At the start, feed grass first; when the cattle are more than half full, add a little feed; when the cattle are about to be full, add more feed, and add feed with a fragrant aroma, such as frying soybeans until fragrant, grinding them, and mixing them into the grass.
4. Clever arrangement of feed intake. In winter the days are short and the nights are long, so you must not only feed well during the day but also add 1 feeding at night, with a daily grass feeding amount of 13-15 kg per head of cattle.
5. Clever warming of drinking water. In winter, cattle should be given warm water at about 25°C, and a little salt and soybean powder should be added to the warm water. Cattle love to drink it, and it can also reduce internal heat and reduce inflammation.