Growth Spurt???

[stifflej]

I have 2 black Angus heifers, and they must be going through a growth spurt. All winter long they ate a bale of hay over 2 days (between the 2 of them), now they are eating one everyday, started when the weather broke here in early March. I always thought they would eat more to keep warm over winter, and we had a very cold winter this year, is it normal for them to just start eating more all of a sudden, almost two times more than they were before? I understand as they grow they will eat more, but this was like someone turned on a light switch...they have been getting the same amount of chop since I had them, maybe I should increase this as well? Both look very healthy, and run and play. Just wondering if this was normal (when my boys hit a growth spurt, their intake doubles as well, sometimes triples)

[agmantoo]

Compensatory gain is an often recognized occurrence with animals. I do not know if that is what you are observing but this is what seems to happen

Compensatory growth, is referred to as the rapid weight gain that usually follows a period of reduced nutrient intake of an animal, when it is placed back on a high quality diet. Since the animal will be underweight for its age, increased nutrient intake is usually noted leading to a fairly rapid and efficient gain in body weight.

This practice was relatively common with beef cattle where young stock were fed low quality feed, basically, reduced nutrient intake, during the winter and early spring months. With the appearance of lush high quality pasture, the animals were offered a high quality forage leading to a high nutrient intake. This usually resulted in the animals compensating for their small weight gain during the winter months, with an enhanced feed efficiency.