Calf nuts

badgerhowlin

Hi,

Im weaning my calves off milk replacer at the moment.
They are currently getting .8kg of startacalf a day.

What calf meal should they be getting now, or soon to be moved on to.

Thank

Water John

You cannot wean them until they are eating sufficient meals. Lots of fancy offers on the market. Should be offered to calves from an early age.

_Brian

They need to be eating minimum 1kg a day before weaning.
And drinking fresh water freely.

Bass Reeves

Not only do they need to be eating 1kg of ration I also thing that calves need to be at least 8 weeks of age before weaning. I would feed one feed of milk daily until at least that age. I would even consider keeping taht feed going until 10 weeks of age. The amount is immaterial you can goo as low as 1 litre but it is a huge advantage if a calf gets sick if he is on some milk. You will have to keep them on a calf crunch until 8-10 weeks IMO after that you can start to move them onto a weanling ration and then onto a good quality beef nut or ration after they are 12-14 weeks if you intend to feed them on grass. It is always about changing over slowly to prevent any setback and keeping them gaining weight, I learned the hard way over the years when I did calves

badgerhowlin

Yes they Will Probable getting between 1 and 1.2kg of meal with on the next week. Slowly raising the amount of meal and decreasing the power. They are down to about 300g of powder to 3l of water at the moment. From Tuesday they Will be getting 150g with 2 litters and 1kg of meal(startacalf) Saturday they will be off all milk and 1.1kg of meal. With plenty of water and hay. But the meal they will go onto is probable calf crunch. Or is there better stuff out there. All calves are 11-13 weeks old

Mooooo

They would want to be on ad lib meal. If changi

_Brian

badgerhowlin wrote: »

Yes they Will Probable getting between 1 and 1.2kg of meal with on the next week. Slowly raising the amount of meal and decreasing the power. They are down to about 300g of powder to 3l of water at the moment. From Tuesday they Will be getting 150g with 2 litters and 1kg of meal(startacalf) Saturday they will be off all milk and 1.1kg of meal. With plenty of water and hay. But the meal they will go onto is probable calf crunch. Or is there better stuff out there. All calves are 11-13 weeks old

Wouldn’t agree or recommend that process of watering down the milk.

Milk replacer should always be made up to its recommended strength or your risking a nutritional scour problem.

We keep up both feeds until we’re confident they are eating 1kg meal and drinking water.

For a week we drop the morning feed, then we withdraw the evening feed. All the time watching behaviour to ensure nonset back in any calf.

Milk, including powdered milk needs to be of sufficient strength to curdle and feed the calf from the curd it forms. Incorrectly mixed milk won’t do this properly.

White Clover

Don't be stingy with the meal, measuring it down to 0.1 of a kg is a bit much. At that age, as moooo said, they should have it under their heads 24/7. Get one of those feeders with the curtain on the front to keep out the birds and keep the meal topped up. Whatever about poor margins on properly fed cattle, you'll lose your shirt on starved and stunted cattle. Its at this age that calves are good converters of feed to live weight.

_Brian

White Clover wrote: »

Don't be stingy with the meal, measuring it down to 0.1 of a kg is a bit much. At that age, as moooo said, they should have it under their heads 24/7. Get one of those feeders with the curtain on the front to keep out the birds and keep the meal topped up. Whatever about poor margins on properly fed cattle, you'll lose your shirt on starved and stunted cattle. Its at this age that calves are good converters of feed to live weight.

We’d ad lib the meal to them getting them started, meal in the trough all the time, empty the troughs every 48hrs, feed that stale stuff to other stock and replenish with fresh stuff.

badgerhowlin

Didnt know about not diluting the milk replacer. They are off milk tomorrow anyway. I'll know for the Autumn calves!

Its not that I'm weighing the feed to the .1kg. the bucket I'm using holds 9kg. I give them give full bucket in morning and one in the evening. So that spread out between them is where the 1.1kg is coming from.

alps

_Brian wrote: »

Milk, including powdered milk needs to be of sufficient strength to curdle and feed the calf from the curd it forms. Incorrectly mixed milk won’t do this properly.

Milk Powder without skim (whey only) will not cuddle at all..and lots of this on the market, including the most publicised brand..