Step-by-step description of feeding calves from 0 to 6 months at home
Feeding allows the calf to grow and develop. At first, his food is only milk, but from a certain age he begins to be fed with food that adult animals eat. Consider the features of feeding calves up to six months and after, what and in what proportions should be given to them, what vitamin supplements can be fed additionally.
How to feed calves at home
At six months, the calf is taken from the mother, until this age he can only drink milk. After six months, his diet already consists of what adult animals eat. Therefore, you can divide the first year of cattle life into half a year.
Up to six months
The time from 0 to 6 months in the life of a cattle is called the suckling period due to the fact that it mainly drinks the mother's milk. The first food of a newly born baby is colostrum. This is a special substance; in addition to nutrients, it contains hormones and antibodies that are necessary to activate digestion and immunity. Colostrum should be given to a newborn in the first 2 hours after birth. Colostrum feeding from the first days should occur 5-6 times a day. After 1-1.5 weeks, the colostrum disappears and the calf begins to drink milk. How many times a day a calf needs to drink milk depends on its age.
A month-old calf should be fed with boiled potatoes, crushed or rolled grain. You need to feed 1 kg of the mixture per animal per day. For a two-month-old calf, the diet is supplemented with premixes, which should include vitamins A, D, E, mineral elements, chalk and salt, sulfur. Taken in the right proportions, the components help the animal to fully assimilate nutrients from food, promote growth, development, and weight gain.
From 3 to 6 months, calves need more protein. At this age, they can be fed root crops, mixed feed, crushed grain, bran, vegetables, food additives, legumes. Vegetables and root vegetables must first be grated on a coarse grater, then cut into small pieces so that animals do not swallow large pieces. Feeding frequency - every 8 hours.
If a calf is raised without a cow, then from 3 weeks it can do without milk, instead, the baby is given a substitute, vitamins and premixes. It is transferred to adult food at the same time as the sucking calf.You can not give small animals poor-quality, moldy or mixed with poisonous herbs hay, bread, beets mixed with potatoes. These foods lead to digestive upset. The step-by-step feeding scheme can be seen in the table.
| Age | Products |
| 2 weeks after birth | Colostrum, milk, water |
| 1 month | Milk, crushed or crushed grain, boiled vegetables |
| 2 months | Milk, grain, roots, hay, grass, vegetables, premixes |
| 3-6 months | Milk, compound feed, legume hay, root crops, food additives, vegetables, grain |
| 0-6 months (rearing without a cow) | Milk replacer, grain, grass, hay, premixes, vitamins and mineral supplements, root crops, vegetables |
In 6 months, a calf can eat more than 200 kg of grass or hay (cart), 100-120 kg of root crops and the same amount of concentrates.
Features of the diet after six months
After 6 months, the calf should be weaned from milk and transferred entirely to adult feed. The nutritional requirements of half-year-old cattle differ depending on gender: bulls grow faster and consume more energy, which means they need to get more food.
The diet of heifers should provide animals with such a volume of nutrients that by 1.5 years they weigh 360-400 kg. At the same time, it is important to calculate it so that the cows do not experience a lack of substances, but also do not overfeed.
From excess, they form a meat type of constitution, animals get fat, puberty occurs early, but reproductive disorders are possible.
For 1 kg of weight gain during this period, the heifer needs up to 6 feed. units Gobies are fed more concentrates, heifers less. The main product in the diet for cattle at this time is grass or hay, additional products are grain, fodder beets and other root crops, fresh vegetables. After 10 months of age, calves can be fed with straw. It can replace up to a third of the hay rate.
Growing animals have an increased need for water, they can drink 3 times more liquid than adults. The frequency of feeding half-year-old cows is at least 3 times a day.
How to accustom to compound feed?
Compound feed for cattle has a different composition and is intended for animals of different ages. Starter mixes can be fed up to 3 months of age. In addition to nutrients, the formula contains probiotics that prevent digestive disorders in calves.
You need to get used to compound feed gradually, giving it in small portions. Usually animals like the taste of the combo feeds and willingly eat them. Since the feed is dry, you need to water the calves to their fullest, water must be poured into the drinkers constantly.
Popular vitamin supplements for calves
The composition of the vitamin supplements produced for cattle includes substances necessary for the growth of young animals. The industry produces ready-made preparations that can be fed into the diet of calves from an early age.
"Trivitamin"
It is a complex of 3 essential vitamins (A, D3, E) dissolved in oil. Available in ampoules for injection and in powder for oral administration.
"Trivitamin" can be combined with feed additives and medicines.
"Biovit-80"
The preparation is a brown powder, a dried mass of the culture liquid of Streptomyces aureofaciens bacteria.
The drug is given to calves with feed, milk, milk replacer, water.
"Eleovit"
The drug contains 11 vitamins, vicasol and amino acids.
Eleovit can be combined with supplements and medications.
"Gavryusha"
The premix, which contains vitamins and minerals, is intended to be added to feed.
There is no need to use other feed additives during the feeding period of Gavryusha calves.
"Nucleopeptide"
The drug is made from an extract of the spleen of cattle, it is used to increase weight gain in fattening animals and increase the resistance of calves to infections.
The use of the drug reduces the time for fattening and raising calves, helps to save resources spent on rearing. In order to feed calves from birth to 1-1.5 years old, you should correctly formulate a diet, transfer calves to adult food in time. The products should contain proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, fats in the proportions that animals need at this stage of life.
