Maverick milk replacer - mixing ratio?

Dot Cotton

Hi all

Hoping to buy a few sucks in the next few days. Have all the bits in place. Was trying to figure out the milk replacer to water ratio when mixing. It's maverick I have bought & I just can't get my brain to make sense of the feeding guidelines at the back!! Can one of you help please? I'm buying only 5 calves & for the first couple of feeds will be giving them 2 litres each twice daily until they settle & then up it to 3 litres twice daily.

Thanks!

Reggie.

Dot Cotton wrote: »

Hi all

Hoping to buy a few sucks in the next few days. Have all the bits in place. Was trying to figure out the milk replacer to water ratio when mixing. It's maverick I have bought & I just can't get my brain to make sense of the feeding guidelines at the back!! Can one of you help please? I'm buying only 5 calves & for the first couple of feeds will be giving them 2 litres each twice daily until they settle & then up it to 3 litres twice daily.

Thanks!

How much grammes is it telling you to give per feed for the 2 litres and 3 litres

Dot Cotton

If i remember correctly it says on the bag to use 125g of milk replacer with 875mls of water to make 1 litre of milk. Am i correct then if i'm feeding them 2 litres each (10 litres in total) its 1250g of maverick to 8.75litres of milk & that combined will make 10 litres once mixed?? Sorry, its probably very simple but i'm finding it a bit confusing!!! My brain is thinking that 1250gs should be mixed with 10 litres of water??

TooOldBoots

You are correct but don't get too hung up on it, once you are near enough the calf will drink it, just try to have the weight of powder correct. If you have a little too much water the calves may not like it watery.
Also mix it in clean buckets, with warm water (45-55c ) and a whisk to break up the lumps

_Brian

Try get it as close as possible.

Incorrectly mixed milk brings on nutritional scour which while it’s no harm itself is a gateway to other problems in calves.

Dot Cotton

Thanks to you both for your replies :-)

Bass Reeves

If there is no measuring cup in the bag find yourself a small cup. A digital scales is ideal to weigh the powder. Place cup on scales zero the scales and fill the cup and weight it again to get the amount of powder. The different size cups available at tea coffee machines are great to give you different amounts. When mixing if you are using hot water to warm the milk do not mix the powder in the hot water as it may damage the nutritional value the milk. Mix your powder in warm water and whisk it to break up lumps as already posted.

When calves first arrive give them an electrolyte mix. This is a home made version of the expensive one from vets.

1 T-spoon of salt
1/2 (half) T-spoon of bread soda
100 grams (4oz) of Glucose

Make this up in 2.3 litres of water (4 pints).


I used to adjust the glucose slightly to 90 grams and make it up in 2 litre milk containers. Give every calf on arrival 1-2 litres of it and introduce milk a few hours later. If calves get scour give the this as well. On buying calves I used to give them this mix between feeds as well as on arrival for first 24 hours. Make sure they have access to water and to straw. Keep them well bedded.

_Brian

We measure the water into a tall white bucket once, mark the level with a permanent marker and it saves so much time at feeding just fill to the level and add powder.
As above we weigh on a scales and mark a container for the powder.

We started this when I was rearing 20-30 sucks and feeding before heading to work for 8 in Dublin. Water heater on timer and drill to mix and making milk took seconds.

mahoney_j

Simply 300 gramms powder in 3 Ltrs water twice daily I know you’ve bought maverick it’s a whey based powder skim is a lot better as it curdles for linger in stomach leaving a more content calf shine ,elivor or vitalac blue would be 3 of best powders out there

Dot Cotton

Bass Reeves wrote: »

If there is no measuring cup in the bag find yourself a small cup. A digital scales is ideal to weigh the powder. Place cup on scales zero the scales and fill the cup and weight it again to get the amount of powder. The different size cups available at tea coffee machines are great to give you different amounts. When mixing if you are using hot water to warm the milk do not mix the powder in the hot water as it may damage the nutritional value the milk. Mix your powder in warm water and whisk it to break up lumps as already posted.

When calves first arrive give them an electrolyte mix. This is a home made version of the expensive one from vets.

1 T-spoon of salt
1/2 (half) T-spoon of bread soda
100 grams (4oz) of Glucose

Make this up in 2.3 litres of water (4 pints).


I used to adjust the glucose slightly to 90 grams and make it up in 2 litre milk containers. Give every calf on arrival 1-2 litres of it and introduce milk a few hours later. If calves get scour give the this as well. On buying calves I used to give them this mix between feeds as well as on arrival for first 24 hours. Make sure they have access to water and to straw. Keep them well bedded.

Thanks for that info. I don't think we ever gave calves any mix like that on arrival or for scour. Will ask the boss (my dad!). A handy one to know. Thanks again

Dot Cotton

_Brian wrote: »

We measure the water into a tall white bucket once, mark the level with a permanent marker and it saves so much time at feeding just fill to the level and add powder.
As above we weigh on a scales and mark a container for the powder.

We started this when I was rearing 20-30 sucks and feeding before heading to work for 8 in Dublin. Water heater on timer and drill to mix and making milk took seconds.

That's a good trick about marking the bucket. Like yourself these calves will all be fed about 6am so not much time for messing about figuring out measurements. Thanks!

Dot Cotton

mahoney_j wrote: »

Simply 300 gramms powder in 3 Ltrs water twice daily I know you’ve bought maverick it’s a whey based powder skim is a lot better as it curdles for linger in stomach leaving a more content calf shine ,elivor or vitalac blue would be 3 of best powders out there

Maverick was always used here when my dad had sucks year's ago. I will look into the other brands for future reference. It's a learning curve for me! I'm more used to weanlings than sucks! Thanks for your reply

Bass Reeves

Dot Cotton wrote: »

Thanks for that info. I don't think we ever gave calves any mix like that on arrival or for scour. Will ask the boss (my dad!). A handy one to know. Thanks again

The mix I gave you is a electrolyte mix I got either in the FI or FJ years ago. It is fairly standard mix as calves may be dehydrated on arrival. You can buy a electrolyte in a sachet at 1-3 euro a pop with a bit of citrus or what ever magic mushroom they decide to add to it. But this is a generic version and all you need is to have the ingredients on hand in case of any issues.

BENDYBINN

How much does it cost in maverick to rear a calf?

TooOldBoots

Minimum they have to be fed to 55 days. They start out on 0.5kg/day then move to 0.7kg/day. Thats roughly 1.7 bags of maverick
In reality you need to feed them till about 65 days and up to 1kg of powder/day so you could easily use 2 bags of Maverick.
So idk how much Maverick is but I'm guessing €44/bag so it will cost between €70-88 euro to rear that calf.
But thats not the only cost involved, you have a long list of other expenses too

_Brian

TooOldBoots wrote: »

Minimum they have to be fed to 55 days. They start out on 0.5kg/day then move to 0.7kg/day. Thats roughly 1.7 bags of maverick
In reality you need to feed them till about 65 days and up to 1kg of powder/day so you could easily use 2 bags of Maverick.
So idk how much Maverick is but I'm guessing €44/bag so it will cost between €70-88 euro to rear that calf.
But thats not the only cost involved, you have a long list of other expenses too

Plenty of trials have shown that 1 bag is sufficient. Teagasc compares calves reared on one bag vs two bags and at a year old there was no significant weight difference.

We’ve been rearing on one bag here for years.

Supercream from freshacres is a good enough milk and not expensive. It’s also worth working out how many feeds are in each bag, I think there were maybe 20 feeds difference across brands.

TooOldBoots

idk about 1 bag, I could never get away with that amount but maybe I was over feeding them so. Young animals need to be fed, if you starve them they end up with pot bellies, poorly developed frames stunted calves.
I haven't reared calves in years, but I seen in today's cattle market you get severely punished for under average animals

Water John

They're early calf rations on the market. Might be worth considering if they move the calf onto solids earlier.