Transition nutrition

Beginning the discussion

Abstract

Veterinarians and nutritionists should discuss diet formulation, feeding management, and health issues regarding transition cows with one another to help dairy herd managers achieve their goals. By working together and providing different perspectives and experiences, they can help identify areas of opportunity or provide solutions to problems in the transition program. Some areas of transition nutrition to focus on, based on recent research, include intake of fermentable carbohydrates, physically effective fiber, and energy and supply of metabolizable protein and limiting amino acids. Too frequently, transition nutrition failures result from poor delivery of the formulated diet(s) or non-nutritional stressors such as overcrowding, inappropriate moving or grouping of cows, or environmental stress. Veterinarians and nutritionists working together should be able to help motivate farmers to make management changes to achieve transition goals.