Transition Cow Management

Nutritional solutions for preventing metabolic disorders

Transition cow management is one of the most challenging periods. The transition period is 21 days before calving to 21 days after calving. The “transition” refers to dairy cows going from a near maintenance state in late gestation rapidly changing to a state of increased metabolic and nutrient demands required for the onset of lactation (Cardoso et al., 2020). It has been suggested that up to 80% of metabolic disorders or production diseases experienced by dairy cows occur during the transition period (Bradford, 2017).

Challenges for the transition cow:

Physiological challenges

  • Milk fever
  • Sub-Acute Ruminal Acidosis (SARA)
  • Negative energy balance (NEB)
  • Reduced immune function and inflammation

4 key areas

  • Energy balance
  • Mineral status
  • Immune function and inflammation
  • Rumen function

The transition period is perceived as hugely critical because of the long-term health and productive consequences and getting to the root cause of transition cow challenges is complex and, in most cases, multifactorial. Therefore, it is important to understand the different challenges, how they are caused and the interaction between the different challenges. Effective transition cow programmes will minimise the incidence of metabolic disorders and production diseases.

Video: Negative energy gap

Energy balance & mineral status of the transition cow

Maintaining energy balance during the transition from dry cow to lactating cow diet is difficult. Many production diseases (e.g. ketosis, reduced feed intakes) are caused by a level of production inconsistent with nutrient intake, inadequate diet specification or unsuitable environment (Mulligan & Doherty, 2008). Ensuring cows have sufficient feeding space, relative to their size, and formulating diets to be nutrient dense will help in avoiding some of the common energy balance problems. However, the main goal of the early lactation period should be to increase feed intake. In many cases, reduced dry matter intake (DMI) is a secondary consequence of other metabolic disorders, such as milk fever or inflammation. Calcium (Ca) is required for rumen contractions which is essential for maintaining normal rumen turnover rates and DMI.

The mineral status of the transition dairy cow is crucial and one of the main obstacles is parturition, which results in dairy cows becoming tremendously challenged to maintain calcium homeostasis (Goff, 2008). The Ca requirement of a dairy cow increases 4-fold at the onset of lactation (Cardoso et al., 2020). As a result, the prevalence of subclinical milk fever (blood Ca 2 mmol/L) in dairy herds worldwide remains high at 25% in primiparous cows and 60% in multiparous (Reinhardt et al., 2011). In many instances, subclinical milk fever is undiagnosed, but its economic impact remains significant and can predispose cows to other production diseases (Cardoso et al., 2020).

Recent research has further developed our understanding of subclinical milk fever by illustrating that not all subclinical milk fever are the same and the persistence of subclinical milk fever in the days following calving is more important than the nadir of blood Ca concentration at 24 hours (McArt et al., 2020). Both negative DCAD and higher magnesium (Mg) (0.45%) diets fed during the close-up dry cow period have proven successful in reducing the prevalence of both clinical and subclinical milk fever (Lean, 2006).

CSM_Milk_fever incidence at varying Calcium concentrations

Milk fever incidence at varying Calcium concentrations (Source: Lean et al; 2005)

Transition cow management & immune function

Reduced immune functioning has been well documented as a consequence of the transition from gestation to lactation and a cow’s ability to deal with infections can be compromised. In more recent times, inflammation or an activated immune system has become an emerging aspect of transition cow biology (Bradford et al., 2015). While an acute inflammation is essential in fighting off infections, sub-acute inflammation is related to tissue malfunction and not a response to infection nor does it show the classical signs of acute inflammation. Sub-acute inflammation predisposes cows to other metabolic disorders and reduces production in the subsequent lactation. Nearly every transition cow experiences some degree of inflammation during early lactation, the only difference being the magnitude and persistence of the inflammation from one cow to another (Horst et al., 2020).  It is for these reasons that inflammation is now recognised as one of the main challenges of the dairy cow transition period.

Transition cow management & rumen acidosis

The transition period is also recognised as a high-risk time for sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA). The abrupt change in diet from a high fibre, low starch & sugars diet during the dry period to a low fibre, high starch & sugars diet during early lactation poses a significant challenge to rumen pH and overall rumen health. These suboptimal rumen conditions can lead to other problems such as laminitis, reduced DMI and abomasal displacement/ ulceration (Mulligan et al., 2006). There have been many approaches to lessen the burden of sub-optimal rumen conditions during the transition period such as the gradual introduction of highly fermentable diets after calving, providing additional feed space so cows avoid gorging and the use of dietary supplements, like yeast and buffers, to stabilise rumen pH.

Each of the above four areas are important when considering transition cow programmes and they also need to be considered collectively. For example, rumen health will have a major impact on the incidence of “diet induced inflammation” which in turn may affect the persistence of subclinical milk fever in the days after calving or lead to other metabolic disorders. Horst et al. (2020) proposed that immunoactivation or subacute inflammation was contributing to milk fever and that low levels of circulating Ca in the blood was a consequence of inflammation, in some cases.  Likewise, Ca balance and incidence of milk fever around parturition will have a significant effect on feed intake and subsequent energy balance in early lactation.

Video: rumen pH and production of volatile fatty acids in the rumen

Novel nutrition solution for the transition cow

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
, produced by Celtic Sea Minerals, is a marine derived mineral source which is active in typical rumen conditions (pH 5.5 – 6.5) allowing it to act as a very effective tool for stabilising rumen pH and supplying bioavailable minerals to the host animal. Previous research on
CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
has confirmed its ability to improve rumen efficiency through stabilising rumen pH (Neville et al., 2019) and increasing the total volatile fatty acid concentration of the rumen fluid (Cruywagen et al., 2015) compared to control diets.

An on-farm experiment conducted on a US dairy and presented at the 2018 ADSA meeting reported that cows supplemented with

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
before calving increased the concentration of Ca in serum and increased Mg concentration in urine compared to control cows after calving (Ellison et al., 2018). Previous to this, a study by John Bernard and his team at University of Georgia investigated supplementing
CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
to cows during the transition period, investigating its potential to influence feed intake and milk production (Wu et al., 2015).

Forty-eight Holstein dairy cows were assigned to 2 groups before calving and 4 groups after calving in a 2×2 factorial design experiment. Cows were fed from 3 weeks before calving to 6 weeks after calving. The 4 dietary treatments were as follows:

240 g/head/day sodium bicarbonate in lactation

1. no additives in close up
2. 50 g/head/day CalMin in close-up
1. no additives in close up
2. 50 g/head/day ProMin in close-up
1. no additives in close up
2. 50 g/head/day Acid Buf in close-up

80 g/head/day CalMin in lactation
80 g/head/day ProMin in lactation
80 g/head/day Acid Buf in lactation

3. no additives in close up
4. 50 g/head/day CalMin in close-up

3. no additives in close up
4. 50 g/head/day ProMin in close-up
3. no additives in close up
4. 50 g/head/day Acid Buf in close-up

The diets were formulated to comply with NRC recommendations and were based on corn silage, alfalfa hay, bermudagrass balage, citrus pulp and soybean hulls.  Ground corn was the main cereal and soybean meal was the main protein source. The dietary cation anion balance (DCAD) was -4.5 and -2.7 for the control and

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
diets during the close-up dry cow period and +35.5 and +15 meq/kg in the lactation diets.

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
increases Dry Matter Intake in early lactation

In this study, the cows supplemented with CalMin
In this study, the cows supplemented with ProMin
In this study, the cows supplemented with Acid Buf
before calving had increased protein yield during early lactation compared to the control cows. The cows that were fed
CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
before and after calving had numerically higher dry matter intakes (2kg per cow and day) than cows fed the control diet before calving and sodium bicarbonate after calving. The improvements in protein yield suggest that
CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
can have a positive effect on energy balance as a result of higher feed intakes. In addition to this study, there is research ongoing at Celtic Sea Minerals focusing on the ability of
CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
to alleviate the negative effects of diet induced inflammation during the transition period.

CSM_AcidBuf - Feed intake and milk production

Conclusions

The transition cow requires lots of attention. Many strategies have evolved from research in this area and are already proving effective at farm level in reducing production diseases and metabolic disorders.

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
is a multifunctioning nutritional solution offering multiple benefits in transition cow diets.

The results of this study and previous studies are specific to

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
and the positive effects on dairy cow health and performance stem from its unique multi-mineral matrix formed over centuries spent sitting in the pristine waters off the Icelandic coast.

CalMin
ProMin
Acid Buf
offers nutritional solutions for:

  • Providing a source of bioavailable marine minerals for improved homeostasis around calving
  • Regulating rumen pH for enhanced transition to lactation diets
  • Better feed intake and subsequent improvements in energy balance
  • May play a role in reducing the extent of dietary induced inflammation in early lactation

The paper of Wu and co-workers is published in the Journal of Dairy Science. Download the full article here and get powered by our science.

Celtic Sea Minerals

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