What happens to most people when they go on a diet and successfully lose weight? They gain the weight back – and then some. There is a reason for that. It’s called the Diet Factor.
In the cave man days, it was extremely important for people to maintain good body condition – the more the better. Survival depended on it. Thin, hard-keeping people didn’t last long.
Remarkably, the human body recognizes a loss in body condition and will do its best to restore it. As a result, we become extremely feed efficient. Fat that took years to store up in the first place can be restored in a fraction of the time once it has been lost. That’s the Diet Factor.
The same is true for cows. Cows that live off the fat on their back during the winter months will quickly regain the lost condition once they have ample forage resources. I have heard of cows gaining over five pounds per day on nothing but spring grass.
Research shows that thin cows coming out of winter experiencing a positive plane of gain into the calving season will have a much higher conception rate than fat cows that are experiencing a negative plane of gain because they had been fed and pampered through the winter.
The Diet Factor has tremendous value. However, you cannot take advantage of it if you are not calving in sync with nature and/or your best forage resources. Your cows need to be gaining weight prior to calving. Nor can you take advantage of the diet factor if you have high-maintenance cows, because they are unable to store up enough fat during the growing season.
Unfortunately, most of today’s cow-calf producers have the wrong kind of cows because they have been focused on the wrong thing. For the past 40+ years, they have been single-mindedly focused on increasing pounds per cow – at the expense of pounds per acre. This has created tall, high-input, late-maturing cows that need to be fed to stay in production.
In nature… the wild ruminants store up energy in the form of body fat during the growing season. They rely on that fat to get them through the winter. Prior to giving birth to their young, they are rapidly replacing the fat they lost over the winter. Nature’s way is not only the best way; it is also the most profitable way.
Quote Worth Re-Quoting
“Smart people do stupid things. Stupid people don’t learn from them.” ~ Frank Sonnenberg