Hi everyone! My name is Morgan Rocks and I am a sophomore animal science student here at UMaine. I, like many others, am a part of UMADCOWS, the dairy cattle management lab. In this course, a large component of caring for the dairy cows, heifers, and calves is proper nutrition. Just like people, dairy cattle require a balanced diet. While our diets require us to eat the proper amounts of fruits and vegetables in a day, for the cows at the Witter Center it is slightly different. Cows require 6 essential nutrients to thrive: carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. Our cows receive all of these nutrients on a daily basis from a variety of sources in their food and access to water. By creating a balanced and proper diet, it makes our cows productive, healthy, and most importantly happy. For our girls in the dairy barn, they receive siligage once a day and grain twice a day. Some cows get BPF added to their grain, this is an additive that provides long chain fatty acids from palm oil to meet their nutrient requirements for maintenance, growth, reproduction and production. They also have continuous access to fresh water through special bowls with water valves that they control. The calves have a varying feeding schedue that depends upon their age and sex. The young calves receive either milk or milk replacer three times a day while the older calves only receive it twice a day. Milk replacer is similar to that of formula for human babies, it is a balanced and nutritious milk supplement (made from real milk!) that ensures our babies are getting all of their nutritional requirements met. They are also given grain, hay, and water to consume whenever they like. Lastly our dairy cattle in the livestock barn are given silage in the morning to eat throughout the day as well as continuous fresh water. The goal of the dairy cattle in the livestock barn is to grow and mature so they can become a productive member of the Witter Center.
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