feeding meal to weaned calves

mj38

3 weeks ago I weaned some bucket-reared calves from milk replacer. They are now 13-15 weeks old. They have been on a diet of grass and 17% Redmills Calf / bull creep for the past couple of weeks and were on calf 18% from Liffey mills before that. The problem I have had is they're powering through the meal at the moment. they were eating nearly 4kgs of it per head per day and it was proving quite expensive. In the past week I have limited them to 2 kgs per day. I'm wondering what my next step should be. Should I continue to feed the 17% ration. I find the Redmills expensive at 11 euro per bag. Should I be changing to a different % protein meal or dropping the amount of meal they are taking in or can people recommend other suggestions. Thanks in advance!

_Brian

mj38 wrote: »

3 weeks ago I weaned some bucket-reared calves from milk replacer. They are now 13-15 weeks old. They have been on a diet of grass and 17% Redmills Calf / bull creep for the past couple of weeks and were on calf 18% from Liffey mills before that. The problem I have had is they're powering through the meal at the moment. they were eating nearly 4kgs of it per head per day and it was proving quite expensive. In the past week I have limited them to 2 kgs per day. I'm wondering what my next step should be. Should I continue to feed the 17% ration. I find the Redmills expensive at 11 euro per bag. Should I be changing to a different % protein meal or dropping the amount of meal they are taking in or can people recommend other suggestions. Thanks in advance!

I think given the grass available at the moment your overfeeding meal..
1-1.5kg/day would be ample..

Now, the only time I'd say above that would be warranted is if your rearing replacements or something like that.. But if your rearing with beef production in mind your just supplementing cheap grass feed with expensive meal.

mj38

Ok thanks Brian. Would it be best to stick with the red mills 17% or should I move them to something else. Should they continue to get meal throughout the summer or should it be cut off altogether at some point.?

Deepsouthwest

mj38 wrote: »

Ok thanks Brian. Would it be best to stick with the red mills 17% or should I move them to something else. Should they continue to get meal throughout the summer or should it be cut off altogether at some point.?

I'd continue to feed a kg or so for another while, as they're still young. If u have nice aftergrass in July/August then u could maybe cut it out then for a while until weather starts to deteriorate in the fall, but don't wait too late.

_Brian

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

I'd continue to feed a kg or so for another while, as they're still young. If u have nice aftergrass in July/August then u could maybe cut it out then for a while until weather starts to deteriorate in the fall, but don't wait too late.

Sounds right.
I'd have them on a regular beef nut 15% for the summer. With lush grass no need for a high p nut. My opinion anyway.
These guys have a small margin so be careful to balance out growth with cost.

mj38

Fair play lads. Much appreciated. Actually talking about keeping costs down I found Denkavit Denkamilk Stierstart to be a brilliant milk replacer. Far cheaper than Shine or Maverick. It's my first year rearing sucks but spoke to an experienced farmer who did half his sucks on it and half on Shine. He felt the weaker calves thrived far greater on Denkavit stuff and will change the lot to it next year.

Farmer Pudsey

I look for a beef ration with high amounts of cereals (maize, barley) some soya hulls and a bit of protein. You may come accross a grass ration for finishing cattle that is Maize/barley and soyahulls/beetpulp if it was priced right I buy a few bags of soya bean meal. Or if you can buy some straight barley add soyabean meal to it 1kg to 10-12 of barley or cereals/fibre mix.