Lead Feed

Lead feed is a highly palatable blend of cereal grains and canola meal which is designed to be fed to cows 14-21 days before calving. By feeding with Leed Feed along with a proper transition feeding management plan it:

• Reduces incidence of Milk Fever and related early lactation disease such as RFM, LDA, Mastitis & Ketosis.
• Helps prevent both Clinical and Sub-Clinical incidence of metabolic disease.
• Improves appetite in early lactation = better rumen preparation to a fresh cow diet.
• Increases milk yield.
• Fewer vet costs throughout lactation, due to lower incidence of metabolic disease in the fresh herd.

No phase in a cow’s lactation ‘sets the stage’ more than how you manage the dry cow and her transition phase, one of the most important stages of her year. During the last 4 weeks of pregnancy and the following month in early lactation, the cow faces many challenges in this period and the outcome of these challenges can affect the success of this and future lactations.

The importance of leed feeding cannot be emphasized enough, as 80% of disease costs in adult cattle occur in this period. Transition diet does not just mean feeding anionic salts to enable a cow to mobilise calcium but refers to the whole diet fed to your herd 2-3 weeks before calving. They are fed both to help prevent metabolic disease and to adapt the rumen’s microbe population for a higher density, higher energy and protein level diet of early lactation.