milk replacer

Sheep breeder

just wondering what type people are using and how they find it performs and what price being paid, hope to start buying calves this week end,
we used volac last year.

_Brian

Sheep breeder wrote: »

just wondering what type people are using and how they find it performs and what price being paid, hope to start buying calves this week end,
we used volac last year.

I'm not in the market..
But when comparing prices you should work out the cost per feed or cost per litre rather than the price per bag.. There is quite a difference in the feeds each bag will make. From memory if you compare Maverick with Super Cream there are maybe 25/30 more feeds in the bag of Supercream, and its also usually a fw €€ cheaper

sh1tstirrer

Sheep breeder wrote: »

just wondering what type people are using and how they find it performs and what price being paid, hope to start buying calves this week end,
we used volac last year.

Use a skim based milk replacer it's around €50/bag. Whey based just runs through the calf skim based takes longer to digest and helps prevent scour. Shine is skim based.

Night Nav

Sheep breeder wrote: »

just wondering what type people are using and how they find it performs and what price being paid, hope to start buying calves this week end,
we used volac last year.

I use Vitalac blu here calves doing great and nice shine just short of €60 for 225 litres of milk

davidk1394

I use fra-gold whey based milk replacer got it for €37 a bag delivered into the yard.. thought it did a good job now gave them a small bit extra to be sure each feed

Freejin

Looking at feeding milk replacer here next spring. Haven't fed it in a good few years,looking for some advice.

From a bit of reading skim trumps whey based powders. Protein % is usually 20 to 25%. Anything else to look out for?

Also any tips on mixing and feeding? Will be feeding twice a day, is it best to mix fresh every day? How about getting temperature right?

The Cuban

The younger the calf the higher the protein needed. And as you guessed the higher the protein content the higher the price.
Calf rearing is an art form in itself, you need to be able to factoring the costs Verses age of the calf when buying them.

stanflt

Used shine once a day last spring and found it brilliant

Have been using volac heifer lac for the past 6 weeks as its stocked locally and only using a bag per day-

Huge difference between both and I'll be back using shine in the spring when using large quantities

Same price per bag but unbelievable difference as I only feed once a day

RightTurnClyde

Any more opinions on milk replacer. First time using it this year. Trying volacs heiferlac I agree with Stan, not mad about it. Growing bone but calves not filling out. (They look like sh1t on it really). I'm sure it's fine for heifers that will have time to fill out down the road, but I want one to feed to bull calves also. Any more suggestions.

Edit, when ye say skim based, are ye talking 50%+ skim or will 15-16% do.

mahoney_j

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Any more opinions on milk replacer. First time using it this year. Trying volacs heiferlac I agree with Stan, not mad about it. Growing bone but calves not filling out. (They look like sh1t on it really). I'm sure it's fine for heifers that will have time to fill out down the road, but I want one to feed to bull calves also. Any more suggestions.

Edit, when ye say skim based, are ye talking 50%+ skim or will 15-16% do.

Shine oad ,gone back to it this year .750 gramms 3 ltrs .used various other brands from Volac to Maverick to pro milk and cslves on shine whilst thriving as well look streets ahead on it

_Brian

We used Supercream from fresh acres and found it good. Not expensive either. We had very little or no scour issues with it. And calves thrived on one bag each.
If we had sucks id be going looking for it again.

Sheep breeder

last year we purchased the milk replacer from wicklow cattle company and found it the best we have used by a very long way, the calves last year were the best we reared in years and were always full and contented and weighted heavier at all stages that the previous years calves.
they have an add on donedeal.

Deepsouthwest

Thinking of switching to milk powder here as well this yr. Can u mix it with transition milk and feed together?

johnnyw20

Anyone used Gains easy mix milk replacer? Buying a few calves this week and local co op has it in stock and have no experience of it.

blackdog1

johnnyw20 wrote:

Anyone used Gains easy mix milk replacer? Buying a few calves this week and local co op has it in stock and have no experience of it.

Not great. Best 3 I've seen are shine. Vitalac blue and elvor . If you get any of them your laughing. Good quality with skim milk powder in them.

mahoney_j

blackdog1 wrote: »

Not great. Best 3 I've seen are shine. Vitalac blue and elvor . If you get any of them your laughing. Good quality with skim milk powder in them.

Using shine and a big fan but seen calves reared on elivor and well impressed with them ,skim based powder u can't go wrong

Wildsurfer

mahoney_j wrote: »

Using shine and a big fan but seen calves reared on elivor and well impressed with them ,skim based powder u can't go wrong

Is 'elivor' the correct spelling? Quick google there didn't bring up anything

blackdog1

Wildsurfer wrote:

Is 'elivor' the correct spelling? Quick google there didn't bring up anything

Elvor. Best selling powder in Europe and GM free. LIFFEY MILLS and Care Chem sell it . I'm using a product from Care chem and it's unreal stuff.

Base price

blackdog1 wrote: »

Elvor. Best selling powder in Europe and GM free. LIFFEY MILLS and Care Chem sell it . I'm using a product from Care chem and it's unreal stuff.

What percentage of skim is included and approx how much per litre mixed is it.

blackdog1

Base price wrote:

What percentage of skim is included and approx how much per litre mixed is it.

3 different brand. LIFFEY sell one between 12-15% skim. Care chem sell 2 brands one 12% skim. The other 25% skim. They come in 25kg bags each bags make 200 litres I think. 400 grammes a twice a day per calf at peak.

All excellent products. I'd use the 25% skim myself. It has lard and yeast in it and the calves all look like they're on whole milk.

Base price

blackdog1 wrote: »

3 different brand. LIFFEY sell one between 12-15% skim. Care chem sell 2 brands one 12% skim. The other 25% skim. They come in 25kg bags each bags make 200 litres I think. 400 grammes a twice a day per calf at peak.

All excellent products. I'd use the 25% skim myself. It has lard and yeast in it and the calves all look like they're on whole milk.

I think you may have made a mistake with the mix rates. Most 25kg bags make 200l at a rate of 125g per litre and say at a cost of €50 per bag works out at .25c per litre. Mixing 400g/litre would work out at .80c per litre (bag costing €50) and twice a day would be extremely excessive and expensive

Base price

The cmr that we use (30%) skim has a mix rate of 115g per litre for young calves, rising to 125g/l for normal twice a day feeding, increased to 135g/l for oad.
I'm very happy with the performance of this year. We started using this cmr this year for the first time. In previous years we used a full whey based replacer made by the same company and were happy with its performance. I only changed to a skim powder (30%) after reading positive contributions on F&F especially from Sam Kade.

blackdog1

Base price wrote:

I think you may have made a mistake with the mix rates. Most 25kg bags make 200l at a rate of 125g per litre and say at a cost of €50 per bag works out at .25c per litre. Mixing 400g/litre would work out at .80c per litre (bag costing €50) and twice a day would be extremely excessive and expensive

It's 125g per litre alright. But 3 litres twice a day at 5 weeks old is 375 grammes twice a day...that's what I was getting at.