Expert: Karin - 1/23/2012

Question
how much and what kind of feed can i give a pregnant older thin cow ribs are all showing she is a guernsey.

Answer
Hi Karen,

Before I go ahead and answer your question, I just cannot pass up the chance to tell you something here. There are a lot of factors here that determine why she is thin or not.  I'm assuming that you have just purchased this cow either from a salebarn  or something similar to rescue her from getting slaughtered.  The problem with this is that there's probably a very good reason why she's being sold for hamburger and not being maintained in a dairy operation.  One reason is that she may have Johne's Disease which is a disease that affects the intestines to the point where she can and will eat anything you give her but will remain painfully thin and be producing watery diarrhea.  I highly recommend you get her tested for Johne's (blood test is best).  If it's not Johne's, then get her tested for internal parasites like tapeworms, liver flukes, etc. (fecal samples best for this).

However, without knowing anything about the history of this cow, what she really looks like, or anything of that matter I cannot say anything more about the matter any further.  But I do hope you are aware that dairy cows are supposed to be thin, and I really don't know how truthful you are when you are saying "ribs are all showing," (no offense intended of course), because dairy cows including Guernseys are not supposed to be big fat and blocky like beef cows are.  The indication of ribs showing is just a small part of what condition she is in.  A cow that is painfully thin doesn't have just "all" the ribs showing: her spinal column will also be prominent to the point where you can place your fingers in between each vertebrae. This will run all the way to the tail-head.  Her pelvis will also be very sharp looking, with the hooks and pins showing all too well.  For more information about body condition scoring, please check out this link: http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=236-bcs-of-cows

Now, I hope I haven't offended you this far, because that is not my intention (never was to begin with). So with that I will finally get to answering your question.  If she's scored a BCS between 1 and 2 you should get to feeding her a ration of high-quality hay, preferably legume hay with some grass mixed in, so that she gets her protein intake.  She will need around 12 to 14% protein to help her get back on track.  But, protein in itself is not the only thing that's going to help her gain weight.  You should consider also feeding her either calf-starter, or a ration of grain, whatever type of grain is available in your area.  Don't feed her oats, as that has too low an energy content and high fibre.  Grains like corn, barley or even wheat are best for getting her weight back up.  Cracked or rolled corn or barley will be good for her.  

Hay should be fed ad libitum (free-choice), and grain should be fed 1% to 2% of her body weight (as-fed) per day.  But, don't feed grain so much so soon as you may give her stomach upset.  At first, especially if you don't know if she's been fed grain before or not before you got her, you should feed her only a few pounds the first few days.  Then gradually increase the ration each day (by maybe a pound or two per day) until you're feeding her at around 1 to 2% of her body weight.  This also goes for calf-starter ration if you decide to get this instead of processed grain.

Be very careful about feeding grain to a pregnant thin cow.  You may get to the point where the cow may have difficult calving because she has such a large calf in her that cannot go through the birth canal as efficiently.  You should also consider taking away the legume feed and replacing it with grass-type hay (or hay that is 80 to 90% grass) 10 to 15 days prior to birth to prevent her from going down with milk fever. Feed only a little bit of grain (probably around 1% of her body weight or less) and start her on the grass-hay during her third trimester.  Fetal calf body weight significantly increases during this period and if you feed her too high a protein and/or energy ration the calf's going to get pretty big.  So just be careful, and really monitor her when she's about to calve.

But I would seriously consider getting her tested for internal parasites and Johne's to make sure that it's not just neglect and/or improper feeding that has caused her to be so thin like she is.  Take her to a veterinarian (large-animal) and get a complete physical done on her, including a fecal and blood test and a preg-check to see how far along she is, and maybe get his/her take on what she should be fed and how much.

Good luck and I hope she improves for you. :)

-Karin