Essential Role of Vitamin D in Beef Cattle Health and Growth

Vitamin D is crucial for beef cattle, impacting their growth, bone development, and overall health. Vitamin D facilitates the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, essential minerals for bone formation. Without sufficient vitamin D, cattle cannot properly metabolize these minerals, leading to serious health issues.

A deficiency of vitamin D in growing cattle results in external symptoms characterized by deformed bones and excessive cartilage deposits in growth areas. This deficiency lowers blood levels of calcium and phosphorus while increasing phosphate levels. Consequently, the epiphyseal junctions widen, and muscle tension causes the long bones to bend and twist, resulting in characteristic bone deformities. Excess cartilage at the ends of the bones leads to enlargements, creating a “beading” effect along the sternum where rib bones attach.

One common manifestation of vitamin D deficiency in cattle is rickets. Rickets is particularly prevalent in calves and is marked by decreased growth, stiffness, enlarged joints, and a distinctive arching of the back. This condition not only affects the animal’s well-being but also reduces its productivity and market value.

Recent studies emphasize the need for adequate sunlight exposure and dietary supplements to prevent vitamin D deficiency in cattle. With the rise of indoor feeding systems and limited pasture access, ensuring proper vitamin D intake through fortified feeds has become increasingly important. Regular monitoring of vitamin D levels in cattle can help in early detection and prevention of these deficiencies, ultimately leading to healthier and more productive herds.
Essential Role of Vitamin D in Beef Cattle Health and Growth

Beef cattle commercial production

Cattle farming involves rearing and management of two types of animals one group for food requirements like milk and another for labor purposes like ploughing, irrigation, etc.

Beef farming systems are remarkably diverse, ranging from suckler herds where home-bred calves are reared to sell as finished beef, to herds where cattle are purchased at any age from a week old, to be sold at any age from a few weeks to slaughter weight.

There are three main types of commercial beef cattle production systems:
* Cow-Calf Phase (Feeder Calf Production): the cow calf segment which produces weaned feeder calves for further grazing and/or feeding. Establishing a breeding herd takes time. It also requires more land.
* Backgrounding Phase: the backgrounding or stocker phase of production in which body weight is added to recently weaned calves, resulting in feedlot ready yearlings. A backgrounding or stocker operation typically pastures or feeds purchased weaned calves until they reach 750 to 800 pounds. Then they are sold to a feedlot for finishing.
* Finishing/Feedlot Phase: the finishing phase of production in which cattle are fattened for slaughter.

Factors that should be considered in choosing a suitable system include:
• The capacity of the land to support growth of grass, forage and cereals for cattle feed.
• Land area available.
• Winter housing available.
• Labor.
• Availability of cheap straw bedding.
• Other enterprises such as sheep-rearing and arable cropping.

The period of transition from the ranch to the feedlot is one of the most challenging times in a beef animal’s life from a welfare perspective. This is related to the multiple stressors that newly received calves and yearlings are exposed to prior to coming to the feedlot such as weaning (separation), castration and dehorning, branding, vaccination, handling, transport, potential mixing at an auction market, exposure to a new diet and a novel environment including pens, waterers, and feed bunks.

Feeds for cattle
Generally, cattle are fed a mixture of these feedstuffs in amount according to body size, physiological stage and purpose of feeding. Feedstuffs are categorized as concentrates or roughages. Concentrates are feedstuffs high in digestible nutrients, like grains and protein supplements. Roughages are feedstuffs that usually have a lower nutrient density and more fiber. Examples of roughages include hay, pasture, and silage. As a general rule, beef cattle consume up to 3 percent of bodyweight of good-quality feed (on a dry matter basis) per day.
Beef cattle commercial production

Holstein Friesian cattle

The Holstein-Friesian breed of dairy cattle originated in the Holstein and Friesian provinces of the Netherlands. Holstein-Friesian cattle exhibit individually-characteristic black and white coat patterns visually akin to those arising from Turing’s reaction-diffusion systems.

These cattle efficient in producing either milk or beef and is known for high productivity under temperate climates. Holstein-Friesian cattle are the most common and widespread cattle breed in the world, constituting around 70 million animals in 150 countries

The Holstein-Friesian (HF) is the dominant dairy cow breed on Northern Ireland dairy farms, a reflection of the high efficiency of the breed for milk production.

Although the butterfat content of its milk is not as high as that of the traditional and numerically dominant Jersey breed, its milk output is higher.

As a beef animal, the Holstein-Friesian grows faster than traditional beef breeds (Angus, Hereford, Shorthorn), and its carcass has a lower fat content at “killable weights”.
Holstein Friesian cattle

Food and Nutrition of Beef Cattle

Beef cattle production is indeed an exciting discipline wherever it can be followed in this world.

In the United States, the sale of cattle for beef is the number one source of income to agriculture by a wide margin. Type and style of beef cattle may change for a time, and thus several extreme types have appeared.

Nutrition and management are based on the best interpretations of scientific facts and the application of such facts.

Therefore, even though changes are occurring in the nutrition and management of beef cattle, in general they need to be more gradual.

The area of beef cattle nutrition has advanced a long way, but most beef cattle nutritionist realize that so much remains unknown, compared to what we know about his discipline.
Food and Nutrition of Beef Cattle