? productions and feed

[Teacupliz]

I was wondering if you know the answer or a site that can help me out-
I find there are so many factors to production and I have been able to bring up my cows production pretty well. I find it does fluxuate-
heats weather.....
I wanted to know how much milk a cow gives daily per breed-
I have--
jerseys
jersey crosses
Brown Swiss
that I am milking right now
holstein later.
also how much grain, hay they should get a day.
Protien ect.
I am trying to go more natural, less or no corn and soy
Thanks for your ideas-
always trying to learn- Liz

[Jennifer L.]

Hi, Liz. A general rule is three pounds of milk should get one pound of grain. So a cow producing 30# a day would get 10# of grain. If you've got a cow milking like crazy you might want to boost the grain to 2.5# of milk to one pound of grain. But with excellent forage you probably wouldn't even need that much grain.

Figure on 3% of body weight of dry matter intake. So for a 1000# cow, 30 pounds of DM a day. Which would include grain as well as hay. Since hay and grain run 10% moisture, that would throw it off a bit, but not by a lot. Remember that there is about 10% waste, as well, on the hay. You could probably figure at least 20 pounds of hay as a minimum.

Jennifer