Can you afford not to? When a dairy cross calf costs $640 as a day old.

You just filled up your barn with your next 200 cross calves. A whopping $128,000 worth of calves right now in NE WI. They came from the sale barn with questionable backgrounds and amounts of colostrum, but like always, you know how to get them going and keep them growing into 250# 10 week olds to sell as feeders. 

The problem these days is that same 90# calf that cost $250 a year ago, now costs almost triple that. It pays out on the back end, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t taking a higher risk on that same animal on day one. 

Losing just one of these calves to something like scours, bloat, or even just a few pounds loss of gain could cost you a huge chunk of your profit, and that’s not something you want to or can afford to do. 

We got out. We aren’t raising cross calves right now, we aren’t brave enough like you guys are. We still have our stable, safe, replacement heifers, but were taking a break on the crosses. But even at “only” $250 each, we still protected our investment by using only the highest quality products. 

What does protecting your investment look like?

Using high quality, consistent milk replacer with all the goodies in it. We have used other, cheaper, milk replacers in the past, and I would never feel comfortable putting something like that into an animal that is that expensive. We penciled in the extra $5.00 per calf or the $0.07/calf/day for the Denkavit 21/19 Performance with plasma, oregano oil, tributyrate, and DFM, and it was worth every dollar. 

Another thing to consider with investing that extra few dollars into those calves for a high quality milk replacer is there’s a lot more to it than just avoiding things like bloat and scours. 

While they all play into each other, the digestibility of the fats and proteins in a high quality milk replacer is something that you won’t find on the tag, but the calves will be the first ones to tell you what quality the milk replacer you feed is. Investing those couple extra dollars into a higher quality milk replacer could be the difference between you being on the wrong side of the slide or not. 

Okay, so you probably know all of that already, but what should you look for in a milk replacer to make sure it’s high quality?

Price. Now, HUGE DISCLAIMER HERE. Price is NOT the only factor. Just because it’s the most expensive bag of milk replacer out there, doesn’t mean it’s the best. There are a lot of really expensive milk replacers out there, but you look at the tag and quickly realize where some corners may be cut. But, price can be a guide for you to help gauge the quality. 

Right now, it’s not possible to get a high quality 22/18 or 20/20 milk replacer for less than $60/bag, but at the same time, if you’re paying more than $95/bag, you’re overpaying. There’s a sweet spot, and sometimes it’s hard to know where that is. How do you invest the right amount without going too cheap or wasting money?

You find a company that proves that they are keeping up with markets and pricing by changing the pricing in line with what the milk markets are doing. You find a company that will stand behind the quality of their milk replacer no matter what. You find a company that’s top priority is making a great product for an affordable price. 

How else can you protect your $640 calf?

By feeding them to meet their needs! Immune systems, growth, and other environmental factors use a lot of calories. Make sure those caloric needs are being met. Maybe leaving those calves on milk an extra week to get their starter intake really going is worth the money. Maybe an extra quart or two of milk replacer every day for a couple weeks will really help pack on those extra pounds. 

This is a never ending topic of how you can protect the huge investment you are putting into that calf, but we’re going to wrap it up by asking you this, can you afford not to? Can you afford to let any of those calves go without the best milk replacer, sufficient calories and positioned to succeed in their next phase of their productive life? We don’t think so.