Cows require 300mm, or one foot, of feed space each when they are being fed silage ad lib. Some farmers say they are feeding silage ad lib but in many cases when you go out on the farm in the morning the feed passage is empty and there is a crush at the barrier when silage is fed because some cows are hungry. This to me is restricted silage feeding and not ad lib.

Where meal is being fed then or when silage is restricted then the amount of feed space required doubles to 600mm per cow. Sometimes, when cow numbers increase there is a lag in getting facilities in place for the extra stock so some sheds have more cows in them than cubicles.

Feed space should never be skimped on as it has a huge bearing on the cow’s ability to achieve optimum intakes

Having about 10% more cows than cubicles is not a major problem, indeed it is close to optimum from an efficiency point of view.

Don’t skimp on feed space

However, feed space should never be skimped on as it has a huge bearing on the cow’s ability to achieve optimum intakes for body condition score gain or milk production. Some farmers will give cows access to a round feeder or put up an additional feed barrier in the yard and scrape it into the tank if they are short of feed space within the shed.

Accessing water

The same applies to accessing water. This is sometimes overlooked but it is critical, especially where meal is being fed. While dry cows have a lower requirement for water, if the silage dry matter is high they will still drink a lot of water. It’s all about access. While the quantity of water available is important, cows must be able to access it and this requires head space at drinkers.

Cows queuing for water usually signals a problem

You sometimes see large troughs positioned outside of a shed, with only a small opening in the wall or a door for cows to stick their heads out. While this is good for keeping the troughs clean, it means that only one animal can drink at a time which is insufficient in most cases. Cows queuing for water usually signals a problem – there’s either insufficient flow rate in the trough or there’s not enough space around the trough for the number of cows it serves.

The Teagasc recommendation for cows at grass is to allow 10% of the herd to drink water at any one time and to give each cow 450mm of space around the trough. For this reason, plenty of long narrow water troughs in sheds work well.

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