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Can a cow be too fat???

R

ryanwheelock

Member
Got to looking at a couple of my cows and was wondering if being to big/fat can create problems with their health or when calving?? I dont have a way to weigh them. I guess they are spoiled too much with really good hay and the pasture has apple trees in it for about 10 acres. They are only about 3-4 years old. Just wondering if to big/ fat is a bad thing. Vet tells me all my horses and goats are all over weight also. Guess its better than seeing their rib bones like some horses around my area.
Just looking for your opinion.
Thanks
Ryan in northern michigan
 
Sure can!! -- We had some excess millet that we baled one year - that winter we fed it to the cows - mostly Angus. They gained weight!!
We pulled more calves than we had ever pulled. cows were lazy and fat.
Millet is high in oil and protein - plus we feed alfalfa - so they gained weight

Ken 46
 
Being too fat can cause big problems in calving. Especially in 1st calf heifers -IE. like feed yard heifers. Please note that starving a cow does not help to have little calves.
The question is, is how fat yours are, I doubt they are like a grain fed feed yard one. I would say to compare them to people, healthy fat or fat-fat.
 
Don't know about the cows and don't care about the goats but you may want to keep your horses fit. It'll save you plenty of grief and bucks. What breed are they? If they aren't working hard (couple rides a week doesn't constitute work) just feed them good hay and skip the sweet feed. Beet pulp is good if you feel you have to feed something extra.

Dave
 
The comment about seeing the ribs in horses - when we raised and showed performance Quarter horses years ago, one way we could tell when we had the right balance of feed / exercise / conditioning was that you could see the last one or two ribs. It was a good rule of thumb for them and would probably be a good rule for us as well.
 
Obviously, you don't want cattle that are too thin, but overweight cattle will have SIGNIFICANTLY more calving problems than those that are a little too thin. I'd want a BCS of about 5. Way back when, I was still working for my Dad and we were calving our replacements in the Spring at 2 years old. Anyone who's been in the business knows how pitiful they can sometimes look. We got the bright idea of calving them as 3-year olds. BIG MISTAKE; we would up pulling more than half the calves and lost many of them.
 
Agree with you and Dave. Many horses in the US are really overweight.

My Mustang became somewhat obese and it caused foot problems.

Because our place in Dallas was too small to allow full time grazing, my horses spent most of their time in a corral and got fat on our good quality hay and lack of exercise.

Moved them all to the farm about a year ago. What a difference! All four have trimmed up because they now have to walk around to graze and get water. The "girls" actually look like horses again.

P.S. - grazing/hay is 99.9% of their diet. I give them about 2 lbs. of 12% feed once or twice a month when I give them a mineral supplement.
 
theres weekend ranchers around me that have cows so fat they can barely walk...i dont see the point in it...my breeding stock are lean and muscular...only thing i really try and fatten up is the calves going to market.
another thing i dont get is why anybody would want a 2000# bull...all they do is hurt cows backs and tear sh!t up...my working bull is about 1100# black angus/limo halfbreed and he gives me enuff trouble...i swear angus are almost as bad as brahma's about going thru fences.
 
What could I do to slim them down, cows and horses? I dont feed any of them grain, they are just on pasture in the summer, maybe to big of area, and I regulate the hay they each get in the winter. Horses get a flake-1 1/2 each per day and the cows about a small square bale a day each. I think it might be to big of pasture in the summer. Could all the apple trees with apples be putting on the weight??
 
What breed of horses? Post a couple pics or email me a couple if you don't want to post. We have some porkers too and yes, apples will put some weight on them. If you think they are really fat, restrict the pasture or put a grazing muzzle on them. You can cut back on the hay and feed straw (1/2+/-) or switch to 2nd cut. You should be feeding a pound of hay per 100 pounds body weight. Careful about cutting back on feed because it will give them mor time to get bored and get bad habits (weaving, pacing, cribbing) Our pregnant mares get free choice haywhen they are in the paddock or grass is thin. The stallion, when he has served his yearly purpose and the gelding that babysits him get pasture that the mares have ate off and half straw half 2nd cut hay.

Dave
 
Being too fat can affect calving in first calf cows.Being overweight at a young age can affect long term production in beef cattle,lowering milk production and thus lower weaning weights for calves. I like my cows not to reach mature wt until they are 4 to 5 years of age.
 
We use MIG rotational grazing for our cattle. My daughter has a horse and we just have her follow the cattle and clean up what they leave behind in their paddocks. She probably still has a bit of extra flesh, but it isn't too bad. In the winter she just gets hay, but she is in a box stall with a small outside area then and tends to put on some weight unless my daughter rides her everyday. Still, she slims down when back on grass.

Christopher
 
Rarely do cattle get too fat on pasture unless there is something else going on. Horses, I've seen some starve on nothing but grass pasture and some get morbidly obese. Calving season has a lot to do with how much weight cows will carry and when they carry it. My fall calving cows always look thinner than my spring calving cows. I push the best hay to the fall calving cows first to try and keep them from losing body condition until they have rebred. Then I go with the lower quality hay for them and let the calves get the better stuff. Spring calving cows just get the common hay as they are back on pasture by the time its time to rebreed. I also wean off their calves sooner than the fall calvers.

Page 11 of the attached Univ of KY Extension publication shows a pretty good chart to estimate.
UK Pub
 
Yes they can. My buddy had a dairy herd and also raised a few angus which he would sell to people who wanted to buy a half or quarter, etc. He would send the cow to the butcher shop and have it cut up and packaged as ordered. One time I went to pick up the order and the butcher said "Tell your buddy not to send a cow that fat again". Too much work I guess. He always fed grain year round and also fed Pop Corn. There was a Pop Corn factory in town and he would get the overruns, stale,unpoped etc. Cows love pop corn balls and candy corn. They learned how to take the wrappers off the pop corn balls.
 
I'm not questioning your management practices, but are you sure they aren't wormy? That will certainly give them a rotund appearance.
 
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