Authors: Jakeline Vieira Romero (jakromero@unizar.es) and Virginia C. Resconi (resconi@unizar.es) – UNIZAR
The demo was held 12th of May 2022 with a group of beef farmers, advisors, technicians, researchers and students in La Garcipollera Research Station, an experimental farm from CITA de Aragón located in Bescós de la Garcipollera (Huesca, Spain). The demonstration was organized by Universidad de Zaragoza and Cita-Aragón.
Agustí Noya, a researcher from Cita-Aragón, in approximately 30-minute talked about “Nutritional status in early gestation: transgenerational effects”, covering topics such as:
- Typical extensive cattle farming;
- Energy balance;
- Adipose tissue mobilisation;
- Body condition of cows;
- Maternal nutrition during early pregnancy;
- Results of the research conducted.
Agustí Noya's presentation was recorded (in Spanish) and is available in this link:
Afterwards, the group visited the experimental farm, observing the facilities and the animals, where the participants could discuss, clarify their doubts and give their opinions on the theme. Furthermore, a written survey was collected to know their opinions.
In relation to the management strategies proposed to improve nutrition in the first third of pregnancy, some benefits were stressed by farmers and A. Noya, such as:
- minimization of the risk of potential metabolic diseases in the progeny and enhancing postnatal health/survival, thus maximizing the cow-calf performance.
- Grouping cows for feeding according to body condition.
- Economic and productive profitability can be improved.
Limitations were also pointed out by the farmers and the presenter, such as:
- Feed price and availability.
- Difficulty in grouping a small number of animals in large farms.
Undernutrition during cow early pregnancy may have important consequences not only in the cow but also in the fetus, with long-term effects in its adult life. Periodically, assessing the body condition of each animal and adjusting the diet if necessary, is the ideal way to try to maintain an optimum body condition and avoid the adverse effects of undernutrition in early gestation. More detailed information is available here and a practice abstract (in Spanish) can be seeing here.
Link to the innovation on BKH: https://hub.bovine-eu.net/search/optimizing-the-cow-calf-performance-in-beef-cattle-through-an-adequate-nutrition-during-early-pregnancy
Further information:
- Long-Term Effects of Maternal Subnutrition in Early Pregnancy on Cow-Calf Performance, Immunological and Physiological Profiles during the Next Lactation. doi: 10.3390/ani9110936.