What does “value” mean to you and your calves?
One word that gets tossed around a lot in the calf industry is the word “value”. Value is a VERY subjective term and is interpreted differently from person to person. How can you make sure you’re getting the best value when it comes to the products you use in your calf barn?
Step one is to know the value of your calves, and not just in a literal sense either. Do you value more money in your checkbook? Do you value growing huge healthy calves? Do you value cutting costs? Do you value ADG? Knowing what you value in your calf program is a great place to start when trying to decide which direction you want to go. It would be a shame to place high value on calf health and growth to find out you did the opposite of that to save $5.
One product that I hear the word value used to reference often is milk replacer. We have found that this word is again, highly subjective, and highly variable. Like we talked about previously, when deciding who you’re going to have on your team, reps are part of that team, and it’s also key to know that they share the same values as you.
A soy based milk replacer for $5 less might be a great value to one person. If you ask me, you couldn’t pay me enough money to feed that to my calves. I value calf health, growth, and wellbeing a lot more than I value $5.
One thing to consider when deciding on a milk replacer and its value is the digestibility of the ingredients. Don’t forget, milk replacer is very delicate when being processed, a slight scorch when drying the fat or protein can decrease digestibility rapidly, but those damaged inputs are still going out into the milk replacer market and someone is buying them, and probably for a lot cheaper than someone that isn’t buying those inputs.
The same goes for additives and supplements. It says on the tag that there is a probiotic in the milk, but how much? Is it the proper dose for the amount of milk I feed? It says there’s all of these things in this milk replacer, but is it enough and is it enough for the amount of milk you feed to make a difference to the calves?
Value is challenging to pinpoint, and even more so when it comes to milk replacer because there are a ton of things that are completely unknown, so how do you make sure you really are getting a good value if calf health and performance are a top priority for you?
Find a brand of milk replacer that you trust. Now, this is going to be a little challenging because you might use your first pallet (or 6 tons in our case) of milk replacer and be absolutely BLOWN away by the way the calves look. You are so happy with how this new milk replacer is performing! Then you get your next 6 tons and everything goes downhill. Consistency is a HUGE factor when determining the value of a milk replacer. Calves thrive on consistency. Throwing them for a loop every time you get a new pallet of milk replacer isn’t doing anyone any favors, and to us, that consistency is worth money.
Company backing is a valuable thing to us. If something does go wrong, what do they do to make it right? Do they take samples to help you find the problem? Do they have their team come up with answers or suggestions for you to help get to the bottom of the problem (even if it’s not the milk replacer)? Do they give you a pallet of milk replacer if all else fails and they can’t figure out what went wrong? How strongly do they stand behind their products?
Customer service is something else we value highly. Are they easy to get a hold of? If you have a milk replacer emergency are they able to get you what you need? Do the people that are answering your questions know what they’re talking about? These are all things that are worth a couple extra dollars to us.
Does the milk replacer do what it’s supposed to do with the limits of your facility and management? If you feed 2 quarts twice a day, are your calves growing within those parameters that you are allowing them to. If you feed a gallon 3 times a day are they growing the way they are supposed to?
Lastly, but not least, price. Are you getting what you’re paying for? Let’s run through a quick example.
Say you choose to spend $60 on a bag of soy based protein blend milk replacer, and are looking into switching to an all-dairy protein milk but the all-dairy protein milk costs $75. What you might see is a more expensive price tag, but have you taken into consideration digestibility? Soy is only 85% digestible to a calf, so that bag of milk replacer is actually costing you $69 to get the same bang for your buck nutritionally. Additionally, that doesn’t take into account the risk of higher scour rates, which can lead to increased chances of respiratory disease, and other digestive upset like bloat. If the soy milk replacer is causing you to treat even two extra calves, your all-dairy protein milk milk replacer is already paid for.
This is just one short example of how value can be skewed to make you feel like you’re getting a better deal, but in reality, it’s probably not true. Like most things, you get what you pay for! Don’t cheap out on your calves, especially without having a good reason and facts to back it up!
If you’re looking to make the switch to an all-dairy protein milk replacer that is truly a great value (based on our idea of value) send us a message. We think you’ll agree, Denkavit milk replacer is the best value on the market. It can keep up with the most expensive replacers for $68.55 per bag on pallet quantities or more.