Nutrition Impacts Feedlot Health, Part 1: Prenatal Nutrition By: Jeremy Martin, PhD, Great Plains Livestock Consulting Inc.
This time of year as feedlots fill up with bawling calves and cow/calf producers are busy preg-checking cows and making winter feed plans, the thoughts of one are probably not on the mind of the other. However, recent research proves the effects of nutrition on health of feedlot cattle begins before the calf is born. Until recently, limited research efforts targeted fetal programming effects in ruminants. The fetal programming hypothesis states that postnatal growth and physiology can be influenced by stimulus experienced in utero - in the case of cow/calf systems that the cow’s plane of nutrition can influence how her calves perform after birth. Research data are available illustrating fetal programming effects ranging from differences in growth and/or weight to divergent expression of specific genes due to maternal diet during gestation. Our goal is to address the effects of nutrition on feedlot health throughout the production cycle, beginning this month with how nutrition of the cow during gestation influences calf health later in life. In spring-calving cow/calf production systems that rely mainly on forage, nutritional requirements of cows during late gestation typically exceed nutrient value of the grazed forage. The potential for cows to be deficient in protein and energy exists; in fact without a planned supplementation strategy based on solid data and feed test results, it is very likely. In the absence of a supplemental mineral program, deficiencies of trace minerals are also likely, based on liver biopsy data from across the range states. Any chink in the armor of a ranch’s cow nutrition program has the potential to influence the feedlot health of her calves. Ample research exists that displays a connection between cow nutrition in late gestation and the performance of her subsequent calves through weaning time. In short, cows deficient in protein, energy, or trace minerals during late gestation wean lighter calves, EVEN IF the cow nutrition is corrected after calving. Furthermore, there is clearly a link between cow nutrition during the last 3rd of gestation and the fertility of those heifer calves whose fetal development occurs in that timeframe. From a feedlot perspective, the important data to note is that steer progeny of those cows deficient in protein and/or energy during late gestation have lower carcass weights, repacdvms.com 33
