Anyone feed milk replacer?

Donald Trump

I was looking at milk replacer prices online (glanbia).

It's not used here but was surprised to see the price of it. From what I see, it works out at nearly 54c a litre for the dearer stuff and 44c a litre for their cheaper option. I assume you'd get it a bit better in bulk or by the pallet but they don't seem to have that option online.


Are people feeding this and then sending their milk to their creamery for less? There is a lot of milk kept out of the tank here for calves every day. A fair portion of it would be being held back anyway, but not all of it. I was looking online to see the prices to suggest it to the oul' fella maybe if it saved him a few cent a litre. I understand the disease prevention aspect but you'd be easily talking a hundred quid a week or more extra cost to switch when you'd consider the difference between what you are getting for the extra milk you might send!


Or am I misunderstanding something? I had thought I looked at it a few years ago and seem to remember it being something like 25c a litre or so for the replacer back then. So maybe I'm misunderstanding what you'd get out of one of those bags. I'm looking at 20kg bags and assuming 100l.

alps

At a mixing rate of 125g/l you will make 160l from your 20kg bag.

Paying €2000 a tonne, or €40 per bag, this equates to 25c per litre.

Panch18

are most feeding replacer or whole milk?

We've been on the whole milk for the last 10 years - feel the calves are doing better on it

mahoney_j

Panch18 wrote: »

are most feeding replacer or whole milk?

We've been on the whole milk for the last 10 years - feel the calves are doing better on it

Replacer and oad ,cows milk for 3 days transformula from bonanza calf health for a week and then shine oad 300 gramms twice daily for a week and then onto oad with same product building to 700 gramms .massive labour saving ,calf health and thrive also much better

Say my name

Panch18 wrote: »

are most feeding replacer or whole milk?

We've been on the whole milk for the last 10 years - feel the calves are doing better on it

We've always fed whole milk here. Just because we've never changed and if it's not broken why fix it. Plus the calves do well.


We give out about people on a vegan diet and processed food and health but not a second thought when there could be a buck saved by feeding it to our future milk producers.
Not saying what's right or wrong but it's definitely a thing.

_Brian

Panch18 wrote: »

are most feeding replacer or whole milk?

We've been on the whole milk for the last 10 years - feel the calves are doing better on it

I’ve no doubt if you have a healthy herd it’s probably a superior feed. But isn’t there a risk of spreading something, johnes disease ?? I don’t remember.

But not every farm rearing calves also milk cows so for many it’s not an option.

mahoney_j

_Brian wrote: »

I’ve no doubt if you have a healthy herd it’s probably a superior feed. But isn’t there a risk of spreading something, johnes disease ?? I don’t remember.

But not every farm rearing calves also milk cows so for many it’s not an option.

The problem I’d have with whole milk is 1 consistency ,solids vary day to day ,2 disease ,3 antibiotics /scc spread

Say my name

It'd be interesting to see just like humans if breast is best and incidences of viruses, disease, bacteria, outbreaks in later life and another one that could be added is how brix affects health in milk fed to stock.
I doubt such a study would ever done and if it was it'd probably be doomed to weigh one way or another from the start.

Mooooo

Whole milk here. Equivalent milk replacer would have to be 40%+bf and 35%+p on the bag. Will prob use milk replacer once the initial calving burst has passed

Buford T. Justice XIX

mahoney_j wrote: »

Replacer and oad ,cows milk for 3 days transformula from bonanza calf health for a week and then shine oad 300 gramms twice daily for a week and then onto oad with same product building to 700 gramms .massive labour saving ,calf health and thrive also much better

I don't think you're supposed to go OAD until the calves are 4 weeks old, something to keep an eye on, j.

mahoney_j

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

I don't think you're supposed to go OAD until the calves are 4 weeks old, something to keep an eye on, j.

Calves always have fresh straw,meal and water and dry bed ,skim based replacer used which curdles in stomach for longer leaving calves content they will be getting 650/700 gramms ,3 years at it all positive so far and calves never hungry

GrasstoMilk

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

I don't think you're supposed to go OAD until the calves are 4 weeks old, something to keep an eye on, j.

Yep it's under eu law if I'm not mistaken.

Buford T. Justice XIX

mahoney_j wrote: »

Calves always have fresh straw,meal and water and dry bed ,skim based replacer used which curdles in stomach for longer leaving calves content they will be getting 650/700 gramms ,3 years at it all positive so far and calves never hungry

Oh, I'm not arguing that it can't be done, j, and done successfully but to the best of my knowledge it isn't allowed under 4 weeks of age.

straight

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Yep it's under eu law if I'm not mistaken.

Calves can't eat hay/straw before 4 weeks apparently.

johnnyw20

Anyone use Volac blossom hi spec? Proved up milk replacer today and it came in at €42 a bag. Meant to be the same as glanbias easimix which is €45-49 a bag

Dakota Dan

Panch18 wrote: »

are most feeding replacer or whole milk?

We've been on the whole milk for the last 10 years - feel the calves are doing better on it

The majority of milk replaces are vegan food for calves and considering vegan substitutes are over processed muck you know what to expect from milk replacer.

Dakota Dan

straight wrote: »

Calves can't eat hay/straw before 4 weeks apparently.

I’ve seen calves chewing the cud at 2 weeks old.

straight

Anyone feeding triple a golden maverick? I've been advised it's the best all round for selling bulls/rearing replacements.

alps

straight wrote: »

Anyone feeding triple a golden maverick? I've been advised it's the best all round for selling bulls/rearing replacements.

Salesman?

straight

alps wrote: »

Salesman?

Volac salesman. I know. Milk replacer is new to me and triple a has been around since I was a young fella. Am fairly clueless about the differences between powders.

straight

straight wrote: »

Volac salesman. I know. Milk replacer is new to me and triple a has been around since I was a young fella. Am fairly clueless about the differences between powders.

Volac has yoghurt written on the bag and acidified and something about health additives

Reggie.

I find shine OAD or twice a day replacer very good

alps

straight wrote: »

Volac has yoghurt written on the bag and acidified and something about health additives

Volac are a good company and produce a powder with very good ingredients. They have a very well refined marketing strategy, some of which is based on creating doubt about other products.

However they will not use skim as a protein source in the powders, sticking with the cheaper alternative of whey derived products.

Anyone that goes to a skim product, like shine, Elvor etc will never go back to a whey based product.

mahoney_j

alps wrote: »

Volac are a good company and produce a powder with very good ingredients. They have a very well refined marketing strategy, some of which is based on creating doubt about other products.

However they will not use skim as a protein source in the powders, sticking with the cheaper alternative of whey derived products.

Anyone that goes to a skim product, like shine, Elvor etc will never go back to a whey based product.

Skim is king here ,see over on twitter too a fairly prominent poster who raved about Volac and heifer lac in praticular for years has switched to skim over a month ago and has totally changed his tune ....
I use shine oad here ,tried the volacs the Mavericks ,pro calf ,shine oad streets ahead of them all ,started using transformula as well last year from day 3 to day 10,serious stuff

straight

alps wrote: »

Volac are a good company and produce a powder with very good ingredients. They have a very well refined marketing strategy, some of which is based on creating doubt about other products.

However they will not use skim as a protein source in the powders, sticking with the cheaper alternative of whey derived products.

Anyone that goes to a skim product, like shine, Elvor etc will never go back to a whey based product.

Thanks for that. I heard before that skim is better alright. Shine keeps coming up in recommendations, I'll give them a ring.

_Brian

For a number of years we used SuperCream made by Fresh Acres. Calves grew well on it. Comes in a pink bag

It’s a skim milk product and worked out at great value per feed. I’d urge anyone pricing milk replaces to work out their price per feed as it’s the best comparison.

Anyway, local supplier stopped stocking it and last year we used Kiernans Mills milk replacer and it was good, probably use it again.

alps

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mahoney_j wrote: »

Skim is king here ,see over on twitter too a fairly prominent poster who raved about Volac and heifer lac in praticular for years has switched to skim over a month ago and has totally changed his tune ....

Was shocked at that...