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Pre-Weaned Calf: Liquid Feeding, Additives, and New Feeding Program

We have spent quite a bit of time talking about colostrum, but that is only the first 12 hours of life although it is imperative to get the calves off to a good start. What about after that? We want to feed the animals high quality liquid and dry feeds. Our goals are to have them alive and healthy, so low mortality and morbidity, growing moderately and weaning early at about 8 weeks of age.

What types of liquid feeding choices do we have?

One is surplus colostrum. It is cheap. Remember, some of the downsides are that it is high in protein and low in lactose. Now these animals, the first day of life, need a diet that is high in protein, high in fat and relatively low in lactose. However, when they get to 2 or 3 weeks old, lactose is their major source or is their only source of carbohydrates and therefore the nutrient profile of colostrum does not fit older calves as well as younger calves. But, in any event, it can be fed with success. On storage. You can store it in a fridge for a couple of days without it spoiling. And you can feed undiluted at about 8% of body weight. If we have Holstein calves that have an 85 lb birth weight, we would feed about 6.8 lbs or about 3 quarts per head per day.

A second feeding choice that you will find on dairy farms is unsalable milk. This milk is unsalable because the animals have been treated with antibiotics and the milk must be withheld or animals have a mammary infection or mastitis and milk has been withheld from the tank. If it is mastitic milk, this creates a problem because the composition of mastitic milk is different from that of normal milk. The animals may not be receiving the correct proportions of nutrients. In addition, California research has shown that mastitic milk contains considerable amounts of staph organisms and strep organisms. It may not be, or it is not a great idea, to be feeding organisms to these calves particularly organisms that can cause digestive upsets such as scours. Pasteurization of unsalable milk is becoming more common on farms. On-farm pasteurizers run from $8,000-$10,000. It comes down to personal preference. The importance behind feeding liquid unsalable milk is that otherwise it would be dumped. Unsalable milk would be fed at 10% of birth weight. A Holstein calf weighing 85 lbs, would be fed 8.5 lbs per day or about 4 quarts and this is about 1 bottle twice daily.

Third choice in liquid feed would be whole milk. This is whole milk that would otherwise go in the tank and be sold to the processor. Whole milk, an advantage is it is mother nature's best. A disadvantage is it can be quite expensive. And we will talk about either an equal to whole milk or at least second which is a milk replacer. In general, whole milk is usually 10-20% more expensive compared to a milk replacer. Another downside compared to commercial milk replacers, is that whole milk does not contain any coccidiostats or antibiotics. Whole milk will be fed at 10% of birth weight, so about a gallon a day or one bottle or two quarts twice daily.

The fourth feeding choice would be milk replacer which is very similar in nutrient composition and results as whole milk. Under normal circumstances, it is cheaper than whole milk. It is a bit more convenient to feed because it can be reconstituted in water at any time, so we don’t have to collect milk during milking. Most milk replacers are also medicated with antibiotics and ionophores. Addition of antibiotics is becoming fewer and fewer because of concerns of antibiotic resistance. But, in general, ionophores are a must and they do increase rate of gain. Commercial milk replacers that one would purchase should contain about 20-24% protein and most that you will find on the market are somewhere between 10-20% fat.

If we compare the two preferred choices of liquid supplements.

Whole milk. The advantage is it is nature's best, nutrient content and quality are unsurpassed. A negative is it is expensive and currently it would cost about $1.08 per calf per day. The positives of milk replacer would be it is medicated. A downside, and this varies by milk replacer, but some replacers have a poor nutrient content and quality. Convenience is a positive. Generally, it is cheaper than whole milk and currently it would cost about $.96 per calf per day. If we look at whole milk and milk replacer and the nutrient concentration, milk replacers are very similar to whole milk on a protein basis, on a lactose basis, but, in general, you will find that milk replacers are lower in fat than whole milk.

Milk replacer ingredients are very important because this will dictate whether it is high quality or low quality. And mainly this has to do with protein sources.

The best quality protein sources are from milk sources. Dried skim, dried whey would be the best and also the most expensive. Some other protein sources that are just slightly below milk protein sources are soy protein isolate, modified soy flour, soy protein concentrate and animal plasma. Some very low quality protein sources or proteins that are relatively unavailable or have a low availability to the calf are meat solubles, fish protein concentrate, wheat flour or soy flour. If you see these ingredients, these low quality ingredients, on the tag of a milk replacer it would be one that you should not choose to feed your calves.

Recommendations based upon age. Younger animal don’t handle vegetable sources of proteins as well as older animals. And so for younger animals, those animals less than 3 weeks of age, it would be preferred to offer them a milk based protein diet. For animals greater than 3 weeks of age, they perform very well on a blend of milk and vegetable proteins, about a 50:50 ratio. Some other things to consider about milk replacers, and they do differ, is ability to stay in suspension. If you mix or if you dilute or reconstitute a dry powder in a bottle and by the time you feed the calf and return to clean your utensils and you have two inches of sludge in the bottom of your bottle, essentially that is the nutrients that the animal was consuming. So, they didn’t get any of their protein, lactose or fat. Actually, what the animal got was just water. Milk replacers should suspend very well in solution and stay suspended. For protein sources, we do prefer milk sources. Soy proteins are getting better and certainly can be fed to older animals. As far as energy, lactose is very important to the young calf and it is the only carbohydrate that can be metabolized by the young calf. Therefore, we must feed either whey or there must be some source of milk lactose in the milk replacer. And so whey or skim should be somewhere on the feed tag. For fat, animal sources are preferred, tallow or lard. But, hydrogenated vegetable oils have been used with success. Additives that you will find in milk replacers and also additives that you can add to whole milk, are oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline and neomycin. These have claims for improved gains and a lower respiratory disease. But, as I mentioned earlier, with increased concerns over antibiotic resistance, we are finding fewer and fewer antibiotics actually in milk replacers and, certainly in the future, we will probably add less of these to whole milk that we are feeding to the calves. Coccidiostats or coccidiosides. Coccidiostats would decrease the growth of coccidia in calves and sides would kill a coccidia are a must. Coccidia are caused by a protozoa and in general they reduce gain. Some commercial sources of coccidiosides and stats that we have available are rumensin, bovatec and deccox. If you are feeding a milk replacer, a commercial source that has these in there or you should purchase commercial sources that contain these and these can also be added either in the starter or in the whole milk. If offering calves ad-lib milk replacer throughout the day or throughout a 24 hour period, we will commonly add acids to the milk replacer for preservation. These would be propionic, acetic, benzoic or citric acid.

Now there is a relatively new concept within the industry or a new calf feeding program. Originally, it was coined accelerated or intensive growth, but now a term they have reverted to is normal biological growth versus our programs that we are currently doing or have done in the past and we are referring to those now as restricted growth. And this becomes very evident when we look at the following table.

We have listed 3 species, calves/dairy calves, lambs and pigs. And if we look at their feed conversions, you will see that lambs and pigs which have unlimited access or at least ad lib access to their dams throughout the day versus calves, you will notice that the feed conversion for lambs and pigs is about twice as great as calves. Then, we look at their feed conversion or lb of feed per lb of gain. It is about 2.2-2.9 for calves and somewhere around the 1.3-1.5 range for lambs and pigs. Lambs and pigs are much more efficient at gaining weight than calves. This mainly comes from that we are actually feeding calves a restricted amount of feed and therefore they grow slower and their feed conversions are poorer. The next table depicts what we currently do, the majority of dairy farmers currently do within in the industry, and this new program.

And if we look at the lbs of milk solids or dry matter that the animals are consuming per day and remember milk contains about 87% water. But really, the nutrients we are interested in are in the dry matter portion so the protein, the fat, the lactose, which converts to energy, the vitamins and the minerals. And so currently, if you are feeding Holstein calves a gallon of milk per day they are actually receiving about 1.25 lbs of dry matter a day. The new program recommends double this amount or about 2.5 lbs of dry matter a day. The protein content of these new milk replacers are slightly higher than whole milk, about 28% versus 22. They also recommend a starter protein higher than we are currently feeding, 22 versus 18. If we look at some research that has come out of this and the lbs of gain the first 7 weeks, 74 lbs on the new program and we can expect about 40 lbs of gain on our current programs. If we look at how much powder these animals are consuming over these 7 weeks, it is almost double. 108 lbs versus 51 lbs. If we look at starter intake, it is actually less on this new program simply because the animals are consuming more lbs of dry matter from milk. 28 lbs versus 48 lbs. If we look at the cost and it is substantially higher. $124 versus $54. But we have to remember that these animals are gaining almost twice as much weight during this period, so your cost per lb of gain is very similar.

A bit about feeding management. How should calves be fed? Should they be fed with a nipple bottle or nipple bucket or an open pail? Any three of these can be used successfully. Calves don’t have to nurse. They can drink from an open pail. Group feeding is also an option, either with an ad-lib computer feeder or with a gang feeder. The only problem with this that you must use an acid preservative to preserve the milk over a 24 hour period and to maintain high quality. But generally where the problem comes in is sanitation or cross contamination from sick animals to healthy animals.

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