Lactation Nutrition Cycle Part II
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired May 5, 2006
With Ray Nebel,
Senior Reproduction and Herd Management Specialist, Select Sires Inc.

Ray, last week you talked about nutrition and how it affects reproductive performance. You talked about a cycle; let’s recap that.

The cycle, I think in most people’s minds, starts at drying off. It goes from lactating cow to dry cow and we have to make sure that she is going to be in condition. We have 60 days to get her into condition for calving. One of the critical nutrient components there is that we are going to change her to a higher fiber diet, but it is important that we keep her minerals into the right proportion. From calving we have to make sure that we do not go into some of the ketosis where we have the fat protein inversions, we have hypoglycemia and the immune system has to be at its best because of all the different susceptibilities she has at calving. The next phase is the peak production so we have negative energy balance to deal with. Another common factor throughout that is the kind of nutrition-related is mycotoxins. Again, these are feed-related, they are toxins primarily made from mold and we have to guard against those throughout the whole cycle. After the negative energy balance she is basically on auto-pilot, from that peak production she is pretty much in a steady state and that is the time when we have to make sure that we do everything we can to get her pregnant and to get her back to where the body condition is ideal for calving, for drying off and then we’re going to go through the dry period again and start the whole process over again.

So you really have to have your nutrition menu in order if you want to do this right.

Most consultants would say that the nutritional affects on reproduction are probably what we see more negative affects, and on the positive side farms and herds that do an excellent job can go back and say the foundation is their nutrition program. I have not been to a herd that had excellent reproduction without them having an excellent nutrition and feeding program in place.

Is there one part of this cycle to pay more attention to or have more emphasis on?

I think most nutritionists and reproductive physiologists or consultants would say the dry period is the time that really sets up the next lactation. Dry cows have totally different requirements. The problem with most places, dry cows are kind of the step-children that are neglected in that we don’t see them every day they are not at the lactation facility any more or at the milking parlor, so we bring them to a separate group; we move them away from the main facility, they go into a different ration but they still have the final stages of development of that fetus and getting ready for the next lactation. Very critical is the concentration of minerals that are going to go into setting her up for the next lactation and will fall into what will happen at next calving.
 
Thank you, Ray. Ray Nebel, Select Sires’ Reproductive Solutions specialist.