Overcoming poor diet and improving nutrition a few weeks before calving has successfully improved health outcomes for calves and added nearly 20kg of weight for heifers in an on-going study in north Queensland and the Northern Territory.
The University of Queensland's Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation Calf Alive project lead Associate Professor Luis Prada e Silva said the results over the past two years had been extremely promising and had received excellent feedback from graziers.
"We've been improving nutrition in the last four to six weeks before calving and we are seeing very clear benefits on the milk delivery to the calves," Prof Prada e Silva said.
"We've found that extra nutrition in those last critical weeks is boosting pregnancy rates in the four months after calving from 50 to 65 per cent.
"At weaning, both the supplemented cows and calves are heavier, resulting in an extra 19kg of weight production per lactating cow."
He said the project which was funded by Meat & Livestock Australia was trialling methods to overcome the impacts of poor diet and heat stress on beef properties in the Australian north.
Prof Prada e Silva said calf loss in beef breeding herds was a problem globally and a significant productivity challenge for the Australian beef cattle industry.
He said low fertility is another issue, with first-lactation heifers struggling to maintain decent milk production and return to fertility.
"We are seeing a significant increase in the conception rate of these first-calf heifers," Prof Prada e Silva said.
"Without good nutrition, it's not easy for a cow to become pregnant again shortly after calving.
"That means this extra nutrition is resulting in a heavier calf at weaning and a cow that has better body reserves to become pregnant again the next year - so it's a carry-over effect.
"It gives producers the benefit of better production this year and even better production next year."
Prof Prada e Silva said producers were excited by the possibilities of the research, but the team still had more goals to achieve.
He said some producers were so impressed they had decided to expand the nutritional concept beyond the trial, but understood for some it would depend on the price of supplements and the price of beef.
"We want to be able to quantify the impact of improving the nutrition of pregnant cows so producers can make their own decisions on whether it's worthwhile, and the best way to make it happen," he said.
"A second outcome would be an index for heat stress in northern beef systems.
"We're using sensors to evaluate how animals respond to heat stress, the impact on calf survival and the overall productivity of herds.
"By monitoring how cattle behaviour changes in response to climate events and the impact on production, we can determine the appropriate heat stress index associated with loss of production."
Using recent technology upgrades was also a key part of the research, he said.
"We are also testing a new tail hair test for early identification of cows with better reproductive efficiency and higher liveweight production," he said.
"One goal of the project is the verify if nitrogen isotopes in the tail hair can be used to predict future performance of cows."
Prof Prada e Silva said the early identification of more productive cows could have a significant impact on the industry.
"We're excited to see where the Calf Alive project takes us and can't wait to share more good news soon.," he said.
"When we started in the spring of 2022 it was a very dry season and then the spring of 2023 was very wet, so would hope for a more normal dry season this spring, we need three years to get a consistent answer."
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