Cattle Diets and Nutrition

What a good question! "Cow Teeth" is a song recorded in the late fifties by little-known country group Bog-Eyed Willy and the Toerags. There are no known surviving copies of the record, it does not appear on any compilation albums, and no sheet music was ever published.

It is actually not important at all, especially for cattle. Cattle can live just fine without having to eat corn; many are grazed on pasture or a rangeland without any corn supplement to "keep them alive" as some extremists might be known to say. Corn grain is actually an unnatural food source for cattle, and will cause metabolic and digestive problems when fed in excess and introduced too quickly. It is alright as a supplement if and when it is needed to meet their energy requirements--especially if they're cold stressed, for instance--but other than that, it's not all that important or crucial to feed them corn at all.

As far as hogs as concerned, they don't really need it either, but their digestive systems are much different from that of a ruminant like a bovine. Hogs can and will eat anything, unlike cattle, so it is more debatable as to whether it's "important" that corn be fed to hogs or not. Wild feral pigs often raid corn fields just to eat the succulent corn kernels and chew on the roots, and they likely do so because they know the corn tastes good and they can easily digest it than cattle can (though cattle love the taste of the corn kernels too).

They have to be bottle fed milk replacer that is specially made for them. Milk replacer usually comes in a powder formula which is mixed with water and given to the calf accordingly. However, milk replacer doesn't need to be given to the orphaned calf if the owner has a cow that can be used as a surrogate mother for the calf.

This sounds like a homework question, but in reality, the best times of the year to feed cows the best quality feed to prevent ill health is irrelevant to good herd health. What IS relevant is a good vaccination program, a good mineral program, and great pasture management. For areas that rely on feed to sustain cattle for a certain period, quality of feed is important, but only if it's needed. If you have thin cows, feed that is high in quality is very important to help them gain weight during the winter months, otherwise you will get cattle that will die of literal starvation or mineral or vitamin deficiency. With fat cows though, it's best if you have low-quality feed like straw so that it helps them loose weight over winter.

Now, as far as best quality feed, in most cases the quality of feed that you feed your cows depends on their reproductive stage and their body condition scores. Cows that are lactating need higher quality feed, especially 2 to 3 months after giving birth, to meet their highest lactation needs. After that it decreases, and won't see an increase until they're in their third gestation period.

Cow dung, cow patty, cow pie, cow feces, etc.

Nothing. Cows usually don't "lose" their cud anyway.

None. Cows don't eat pancakes.

There are far too many variables and unknowns here to be able to answer this question. Please see the related questions below.

They don't have to, really. Depending on the breed, some breeds like living up on the hill tops whereas others prefer the bottoms. It's more down to preference than anything, there's nothing that says they have to live on high land, even in flood-prone areas. If there's a flood, well then the animals are smart enough to move up to higher ground, they don't need a farmer to force them to go to higher ground.

That all depends on where you live, what your soil and vegetation is, climate, size of animals, etc. are.

The dimensions of the field are not used in solving this problem except to assure that they are longer than the length of rope. The question is solved by realizing that the cow will have access to a quarter circle and solving for this area. In this case, the answer is 78.54 square meters.

Uh, stomachs have NO COWS!

nope just chickens

There is no "cow" that will weigh at that weight. A CALF will weigh at that weight, not a cow. And it really depends on the age of the calf. Most calves will only produce around 10 lbs of dung per day at that age and weight. The bigger they get, the more dung they'll produce.

Eating grass

it is not very good for them and would cause them t get sick...but yes

Only if the cow is dead. Vultures don't usually swoop down upon an alive cow and eat it.

Grass is broken down in the rumen by a process of fermentation. Microbes and protozoa in the rumen aid in this process, which helps release nutrients like protein (amino acids), energy in the form of fatty acids, and water. These fatty acids either get absorbed in the rumen, or by pass the rumen completely and get absorbed through the small intestine after going through the eructation and rechewing process, then fermentation again to eventually go through the omasum, then the abomasum. Basically these fatty acids get absorbed into the bloodstream which feed nutrients to various cells in the cow's body. These cells use these nutrients to continue function and grow, which in turn helps give the cow energy to keep living, eating and moving around.

Nowhere. These type of blocks do not exist.

Microorganisms in the rumen (the cow's first stomach) can turn urea into protein - this increases the growth rate.

The cow is the animal that has a longer small intestine than the human. This is mainly due to the cow's diet, which is strictly herbivorous, unlike the human.

There really isn't one type of crop that is not fed to livestock, in some form or other, except maybe potatoes. All crops produced for humans undergo a process where only a small portion of the plant can be used for human consumption. The rest is either piled up and made into green manure, or fed to livestock.

It all depends on what feed is being fed to that steer, as in what feed is available, what the ratio of forage to grain is for that steer, and the steer's breeding and genetics. Some breeds or crossbreeds of steers will require less feed to achieve a pound of gain than other breeds or crossbreeds. For instance, an Angus steer will gain a pound on less feed than a Simmental steer.

The results that can be expected from feeding monensin to feedlot cattle are increased feed efficiency, better average daily gains, and less sick animals suffering from bouts of foamy bloat and acidosis. Feed intake is not so inconsistent as it would be if this ionophore were not fed to these cattle, because it selects for proprionate-producing bacteria and against lactate-producing and acetate-producing bacteria which increases rumen pH and reduces methane emissions), and decreases ammonia output (increasing protein availability to the animal). On a microbial level, you will see less gram-positive and more gram-negative bacteria, which is a means to actively select for, as mentioned above, more proprionate-producing bacteria than acetate-producing ones. You should also expect to see less protozoa and fungi in the rumen of these animals.

No. Grain should only be fed if a) you are wanting to finish them on grain for beef, or b) they are loosing weight and condition on hay, or if the hay is not adequate nutrition enough for lactating cows and/or growing cattle. If you're doing none of the above or your cows and growers are doing just fine on hay alone, then don't bother wasting your money on grain.