Milk Replacer Ingredients - How are they sourced?
How many of you have been personally invited to tour inside of the plant that makes your milk replacer? Because we haven’t before taking our trip out to New York to see how our Denkavit milk replacer gets made.
When it comes to milk replacer tags, many of them appear to be almost the same outside of the changing protein and fat percentages.
While they might have similar ingredients listed, and maybe even in similar order, not all milk replacers are created equal.
We recently took a trip out to New York to see EXACTLY what goes into our Denkavit milk replacer.
We have been feeding milk replacer to our calves for 15 years and have never been invited to learn, let alone gear up and head directly into the plant where the milk replacer is made.
While we were there we got to learn a ton (literally) about what makes Denkavit’s milk replacer different from any other milk replacer out there. The list is long, but first we are going to tackle how they source their products and some of the logistics of the plant.
The first thing that makes Denkavit different is the fact that they are one of four true manufacturers of milk replacer in the United States. This means they are making their own fat starting with a liquid source, as opposed to purchasing all dried ingredients. Those liquids are dried down into a powdered fat, through a drying process completely handled by the Denkavit quality assurance team. This means they have full control of the extremely delicate process of drying a liquid down to powder form. It is very easy to burn or scorch ingredients, damage proteins from rough handling or beating, and many other issues during the process. Since many raw ingredients are by-products from human consumption products, processors do not understand the importance of this product going to a young, susceptible calf.
Denkavit sources high quality products for the formulation of milk replacers. This is pretty exciting because some of the ingredients used in the formulation could be used for human consumption too! It’s also worth mentioning that your milk replacer is made to order. When you place your order with Denkavit, they start making it. It’s not some generic blend that’s been sitting in a warehouse for months before you get it. When we get a load of milk replacer, the date I order it is the date that’s on the pallet because they literally made it that day.
Denkavit is very proud of the fact that their name is going on the bag of milk they are distributing, and they take quality control very seriously.
While we were there, they asked us if we had any feedback on their products. We really didn’t have any, so they asked us if the pallets were wrapped well for shipping. We said they handled it very well! I spoke to the fact that I’ve personally unloaded around 66 tons of milk replacer off of semi trailers, and have dumped a grand total of 1 ton of milk, and it was because I was on my last pallet to unload and I got careless. While this conversation about the pallets was happening we were standing next to some pallets that were ready to go, the manager giving the tour stopped to inspect them. He commented on how he would like to see the cardboard that gets wrapped inside of the plastic about an inch lower than it was on 1 pallet. To me, that’s a level of detail I aspire to have, and it shows just how much attention goes into every bag.
Don’t think this was a special occasion either. They said to let all of their customers know that if they are ever in the area and want to come check it out, they are more than welcome to tour the plant as well.
While this may seem like an overwhelming amount of information, trust us, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the difference Denkavit milk replacer can make in your calf barn.
If you’re interested in seeing the difference for yourself, we can help you get started and we’re pretty sure you won’t be switching back once you try it!
Send us a message to set up a trial on your farm today!