Investment in balanced nutrition boosts long-term herd productivity

Skimping on cow nutrition to meet a shrinking bottom line could hurt more than it helps by reducing herd profitability.

Holly McGill told Beef Day attendees at Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week that optimizing nutrition through forage testing, measuring cow mineral intake and minimizing or eliminating waste is better than cutting corners to save cash.

“Especially with respect to beef cows when (forages are) sometimes 100 per cent of their diet,” said the Elanco Canada Ltd., ruminant nutritionist.

“It really pays to know exactly what you’re feeding them.”

Why it matters: Feed costs are skyrocketing but investing in high-quality feed to meet a cow’s gestational needs provides better returns than cutting corners on nutrition.

Gene expression is highly variable, and influences in utero could reshape an animal’s development trajectory, causing persistent, potentially generational, long-term good and bad consequences through fetal programming.

Fetal programming reflects the long-term impacts of maternal stimulus or insult during critical periods of fetal development on progeny. Epigenetics reflects how a body reads, rather than alters, a DNA sequence. Nutrition influences both.

McGill said recent research in animal models, livestock included, demonstrated that fetal programming is universal, with offspring consequences regarding growth, development and health being more significant and harder to detect than once thought.

“As early as one month into gestation, nutrient deficiency in the cow can start to result in reprogramming of the offspring and affect postnatal development,” said McGill.

“Anything that happens early on in gestation tends to play the biggest role later in life.”

Effects of insults to maternal nutrition early in gestation appear after weaning and into adulthood.

For example, a 2010 University of Wyoming study, which restricted cows’ nutrients to 55 per cent in the first 85 days of gestation before returning to normal, resulted in calves born with significantly smaller organ systems, especially lungs and trachea, despite average birth and weaning weights and daily gains.

“That puts them at greater risk of respiratory disease,” said McGill, which is a concern in Ontario. “So (it’s) something to pay attention to.”

The dam’s nutritional status could alter production efficiency and meat quality as the fetus enters critical skeletal muscle fibre and tissue formation in mid-gestation.

McGill said a 2022 Brazilian study showed protein supplementation in that mid-gestation period increased the expression of genes related to insulin uptake in the body.

“This positively affected the energy metabolism of the animal and favoured an increase in skeletal muscle mass.”

According to the University of Wyoming study, dams grazed on improved pasture had calves with increased weaning weights and a higher tender meat score than those on native pasture. Additionally, the university showed heifers born to cows fed 70 per cent of their nutrient requirements from day 45 to 185 had smaller ovaries and less luteal tissue, negatively impacting their first breeding cycle compared to unrestricted dam heifers.

“They’re now following those heifers’ offspring, essentially looking at grandmother nutrition,” McGill said, “to see how far the effects go and how many generations might feel those epigenetic differences.”

McGill said heifers born to unrestricted or supplemented dams hit puberty younger, have better pregnancy rates, increased 205-day weaning weights, and greater weaning weights with their calves.

“When we’re talking about cost saving and efficiency these days, efficient animals mean a lot,” she said.

“Steers from supplemented dams, time and again, show greater weaning weights, greater feedlot gains, bigger carcass weights and fat levels, despite showing no outward signs at birth.”

A 30-month study of steers born to late-gestation, nutrient-deficient dams versus non-deficient dams showed unrestricted progeny had greater retail yield on a carcass weight basis, higher marbling scores, improved feed efficiency and a low metabolic issues probability later in life.

McGill said a cow’s mineral and vitamin requirements could rise more than 100 per cent during lactation and recommended a well-fortified supplement or pre-mix.

“The times immediately before and after calving are important,” she said. “Her nutrient requirements in that 100 days are equal to the 265 other days of the year.”

McGill explained if a cow’s losing weight, she’s not meeting the calf’s needs despite the calf being the priority for nutrient partitioning. Still, good records with a nutritional baseline could highlight issues before you hit a wreck.

Finding a competent and knowledgeable feed rep and nutritionist who will utilize feed testing to design a program to ensure profitability and long-term herd success while minimizing waste and cost is valuable, said McGill.

“The moral of the story is a fetus developed in a uterine environment which either benefited from some supplementation or from unrestricted nutrient intake exhibited major economic advantages,” McGill said.

“Even well over a year and a half, sometimes two and a half years, after being born, despite no differences apparent at its birth.”

– This article was originally published in the Feb. 20, 2023 issue of Farmtario.