How much feed will a cow need per day

[Kiwi]

How much feed do you think a cow will need per day? If you want to store feed through the dry season, how do you know how much feed will be enof for them? Thanks buddies.

[Hippo]

From what I have read so far, cows or cattle in general will eat 2-4% of their body weight in feed. So a 100kg cow will eat 2-4 kg feed everyday. The higher the feed quality, the more they'll eat.

[Henlus]

Generally, a cow will eat from 2.5 to 3 % of its body weight in feed daily. These figures are in dry matter (DM) basis, meaning that moisture in the feed is not included. For example, Hay is dried forage with a moisture content of about 18%. 100kg of this hay will have 18kg moisture and 82kg dry matter (DM). On dry matter basis, we consider only 82kg and ignore the 18kg moisture. The moisture content in hay can be measured with an electronic moisture meter.

So if you have a 100kg cow and you want to feed it 2.5% of its body weight with hay (82% DM), you’ll give it 3.05kg hay. You should also account for wastage.

i.e. 2.5% of its body weight = (2.5/100) x 100kg = 2.5kg hay.

This 2.5kg hay contains 100% dry matter. But since the hay we have contains only 82% (82/100 = 0.82) dry matter, we have to feed more of it to make up the remaining dry matter that is missing. To get the real amount to feed, simply divide 2.5kg by the dry matter % in the hay.

Therefore, 2.5kg/0.82 = 3.05kg.

For low quality feed, Feed intake can be as low as 1.8% of body weight. Lactating cows will eat 40-60% more feed than dry cows. Temperature also affects intake. Feed intake can increase by 30% in colder temperatures and decrease by 30% in hot/humid conditions.

See the table at: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/faq7811

Low quality forage can be caused by forage grown in unfertile soils or forage that have been allowed to over-mature. As forage mature, they become less digestible. Grinding such forage can increase intake. But it will be costly to do so.

For top performance, about 70 to 80 % of this feed should be a concentrate mix and the remainder good quality roughage. On good pasture, concentrate mix can be reduced 50 to 70 %, but more concentrates produce faster gains.

[Kiwi]

Thanks everyone. The math is helpful.