70 Cows housed in muddy environmental conditions during late gestation have lesser body weight and body condition score compared with cows housed on wood chips

Abstract

Abstract Future climate predictions suggest greater precipitation events and an increase in mean ambient temperature during winter months, creating wet and muddy conditions during the last third of gestation for spring calving beef cows. Cows housed in these conditions will likely have increased energy requirements; however, there is limited data on cow requirements in such circumstances. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of muddy environmental conditions on cow body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) in late gestation. Twenty multiparous Angus cows (n = 10/treatment) housed and fed individually were used in this study. Cows were paired based on initial BW, and one cow from each pair was randomly allocated to either the mud (MUD) or control treatment (CON). Cows in the CON treatment were bedded with wood chips and not exposed to mud, while cows in the MUD treatment were housed in mud (23.6 ± 5.8 cm). Cows were fed the same diet, and each pair was fed to the CON cow’s requirements for maintenance and day of gestation. Maintenance requirements were adjusted weekly. From 213 to 269 days of gestation, cows were sampled for BW and BCS weekly. Data were analyzed as a randomized complete block design with repeated measurements, and the SLICE option of SAS was used for mean separation. All cows started at similar BW (P = 0.35) and BCS (P = 0.79); however, cows housed in muddy conditions had lesser BW (P < 0.01) and BCS (P < 0.01) at day 269 compared with CON cows, while there were no dry matter refusals from any animals throughout the study. Therefore, MUD cows weighed 37.6 kg less than CON cows by the end of the study while dry matter intake was the same between treatments, indicating that mud greatly increased cow requirements.