After weaning, calves continue to have high nutritional requirements, as they are in the body development phase until they reach adulthood. But after weaning they will no longer rely on nutrients from their mother’s milk, so nutrients will be provided in two forms, roughage and concentrate.
In this phase of high demand, we must allocate roughage with high nutritional value, mainly fertilized pastures, respecting heights through rotational grazing. We can still use silage, in a confinement or semi-confinement system, if there is no high-quality pasture available.
Having defined which roughage to be used, we will define the concentrate.
The concentrate has the function of completing the animal’s requirements, that is, what is missing from the forage and what we will require in excess of weight gain. We can count on protein, protein-energy and energy supplements, as well as the use of feed that will have higher consumption.
Animals that received creep-feeding during the breeding phase have an easier time adapting to supplementation after weaning, remembering that ruminants take around 15 days to adapt to the new diet.
Examples:
-Cross calves, 8 months old, 280kg, on ryegrass oat pasture. With energy supplementation, 3g of the supplement for each kg of the calf, i.e. 840g of supplement per day per animal;
-Cross calves, 5 months old, 150kg, early weaned, on brachiaria pasture. With feed supplementation, 1% of live weight per day of feed per animal, i.e. 1.5kg per animal per day.
Both examples will meet the animal’s demand, with an expected gain of 1 kg per day in body weight.
Nutrition is the basis for good animal performance, to reduce the age at slaughter we must improve rearing (from weaning to finishing) so that we can shorten this phase. The important thing is not to lack food, so as not to lose the animal’s development curve, in other words, adjust supplementation according to the season and roughage supply.
