{"id":46088,"date":"2019-07-16T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=46088"},"modified":"2019-07-08T08:26:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T13:26:55","slug":"%ef%bb%bfcattle-feeding-at-night-and-its-life-giving-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=46088","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffCattle feeding at night and its life-giving effects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Patrick Kepka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorrance junior<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you like to help cows\nat bedtime? Late nights and early mornings are just an accepted part of life\nfor farmers and ranchers. Of many things that can be done to help the\nbetterment of the cattle and the farmer\u2019s lifestyle, adjusting the cattle\u2019s\nfeed towards the evening or at night may do just that, especially in the months\nleading up to the calving period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cow-calf operations\nnowadays can get quite extensive. Two areas that reflect the success of a farm\nor ranch are optimization and efficiency. They often go hand in hand as better\noptimization often creates better efficiency and vice versa. Feeding cows at\nnight will act upon these components while improving opportunities for a full\nnight\u2019s rest because calving episodes are more likely to occur during the\ndaylight hours due to the time of feeding adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operations have shifted\nfrom numerous small ranches to a more efficient outlook with larger being\nbetter in most cases. With the number of beef cattle dropping since the late\n1970s, the efficiency aspect continues to grow in importance. Not to shock\nanyone, but farmers and ranchers are always looking for ways to improve\nfinancially, such as with their feeding programs, breeding programs, and labor\nmanagement as well as the environment, price cycles, and community programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, these last\nthree items deal mostly with external sources like unpredictability of weather\nevents and also the cattle prices. Community programs can help build personal\nconnections down the line like in 4-H and FFA that can positively affect one\u2019s\noperation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeding cattle at night\nopens up opportunities to improve efficiency via reduction in cow and calf\nmortality due to improved supervision, as shown by recent research. Cows being\nfed at night in the months leading up to the calving season showed a great\nincrease in calves being born during the day rather than at night. This is\ncalled the Konefal Calving Method, after the first researcher to report this\neffect in the 1970\u2019s. A study done in Iowa of over 1,300 fed cows once daily\nnear dusk and started multiple weeks before the calving season began. They\nfound that 85 percent of the cows calved between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. when fed\nnear dusk compared to  49 percent of the\ncattle calving during the day when fed in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another study by John\nJaeger, of the Agricultural Research Center-Hays of Kansas State University,\nand co-workers involved two experiments, morning fed and evening fed cattle\ngroups. Morning fed cattle were held at the University of Idaho and evening fed\nwere held at the Agricultural Research Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day for calving was\nbroken down into six segments of four hours each. The morning-fed cattle were\nnearly evenly spread out among all six segments, but the evening-fed cattle had\nfar more calve during the day rather than night. Breaking down into\npercentages, 52 percent of morning-fed calved\nbetween 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. compared to 85.4 percent for evening fed. Several\nother studies have been done showing similar results throughout the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaeger\u2019s study also\nlooked at calving time heritability between a dam and her daughter He found\nthat \u2018heifers appear to model their pattern of parturition to that of their\ndam.\u2019 One can use this to further select for cattle that will calve during the\nday outside of the feeding time adjustment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exact cause of the\napparent increase in day-time calving from evening feeding is not known as of\nnow. A hormonal effect may be involved, said Rick Rasby with University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Studies have shown\nfeeding at night may cause intraruminal pressures, which need to be low for\ncalving, to rise at night. Day-time calving will likely increase survival rates\nof calves as it might reduce deaths by dystocia, or difficult births, since\nranchers or farmers can be around for assistance. In addition, for early spring\ncalvers, calving in the heat of the day and not in the cold of night helps\nsurvival. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeding at night is by no\nmeans a perfect system. Some negative aspects go along with the positives.\nFeeding all the cattle in the evening may not be possible, so feeding earlier\nin the day must be done. First-calf heifers would be the first priority for\nevening feeding if this were the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, stress on\nequipment and land can be much more impactful during the evening hours than\nmorning hours, especially if the winter was wet. Frozen ground will not cause\nas much of issues as the slush that occurs if the temperature rises to above freezing\nduring the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the larger picture,\nwhether to institute evening or morning feedings depends how one weighs the\nrisks or rewards of each. There is a pretty good correlation of evening or\nnight time feedings to cows calving during the daylight hours along with the\nbenefits involved from it. Becoming more informed on the topic at hand is the\nfirst thing to do as one goes forward towards making a change in the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Kepka, a 2016 Thomas More-Prep Marian High School graduate, is a junior majoring in general agriculture at Fort Hays State University. He is the son of Michael and Linda Kepka, Dorrance.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This essay on a topic in agriculture was researched and written by a student as part of a project in a senior animal science class at Fort Hays State University. The project director is Dr. Brittany Howell, associate professor of agriculture, bjhowell@fhsu.edu<\/a>, 785-628-4015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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