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Q: Late in the winter my spring calving cows start to lose a lot of condition. How can I use distiller's grains to get them back in shape?

A: Obviously the preference here is to not let the cows lose too much condition. The way to do that is to get an accurate nutrient analysis of the feedstuffs you are feeding and match that with a supplementation program that will meet the requirements of your cows. It is difficult to give a general answer without knowing specifics of the situation, but in most cases a dietary TDN of 60% should give you pretty good gain on cows and get them back into shape before calving and rebreeding if you don't wait too long. So if we assume that distillers' grains has a TDN value of 100% and the roughage has a TDN value of 50%, that would mean that you could feed a blend of distillers' and roughage with distillers' making up 20% of the mix. Obviously you will have to know the TDN value of the forage you are using and make the calculation for your specific situation. If you wanted to feed more distillers you could limit feed them 1.5 to 2% of BW with a blend of 25 to 35% distillers and 75 to 65% roughage (65 to 70% TDN). Now these scenarios are dry lot scenarios where water sulfur is not an issue and you will need to watch the cows to make certain you don't get them too conditioned. Over conditioned cows can have as many problems down the line as cows that don't have enough condition, and they are a drain on the bottom line of an operation.