Beef: Night feeding helps to encourage day calving

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Managed properly, feeding after 5 p.m. results in day-calving in about 80 per cent of trials and nature is more forgiving of a calf dropped in daylight

by DON STONEMAN

Night feeding for day calving doesn't work for you? Maybe you aren't doing it right. The key, says Nancy Noecker, a provincial cow-calf specialist, is not to leave feed in the bunk all day. "If there is feed lying around all day, there is no incentive for cows to eat when there is feed."

Managed properly, night feeding after 5 p.m. results in day-calving in about 80 per cent of trials, Noecker says.

A newsletter from Alberta Agriculture says that night feeding causes pressure in the rumen to rise due to feed volume and decline during the day. Rumen action naturally declines a few hours prior to calving, so feeding at night seems to encourage calving in daylight hours.

Among the reasons for daylight calving, the newsletter cites better ability for producers to help hard calvings. "Calving is the cow's job," says Noecker. But there are other good reasons to calve in daytime. Nature is more forgiving of a calf dropped in daylight rather than at night. There's generally less predation in daylight. And it's easier for the herd manager to find the calves and treat and tag them.

Switching to nighttime feeding is only necessary for a couple of weeks before calving to make this practice work, Noecker says. Cows should be getting better quality hay or corn silage in the last trimester of pregnancy.

In larger operations, feeding after 5 p.m. may be impossible. The Alberta newsletter suggests that first calf heifers and second calf cows should get their feed at night because they and their calves are most at risk from a night time calving.

A British study of 162 cattle from four farms found that 57 per cent of calves were born between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. when cows were fed at 9 a.m., versus 79 per cent when cows were fed at 10 p.m. A study in Iowa involving more than 1,300 cows from 15 farms showed that 85 per cent of calves were born between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. when cows were fed once daily at dusk.

In the 1980s, research at Purdue University showed that feeding at night and again during the day did not change feeding patterns. BF