Is just adding fat the most economical option when feeding calves in colder temperatures?

In our previous post we discussed calories and how to make sure your calves are getting enough of them to keep them warm, growing, and healthy with colder temperatures. As you can likely assume, feeding more calories comes with a price tag, but does that price tag have to break the bank or are there more economical options to achieve the same results?

Many times, calf raisers first thought on winter calf feeding is to add more fat. That makes perfect sense, more fat equals more calories, but is just adding more fat the only way to achieve this? No, it’s not!

Fat is the most calorie dense nutrient out there, pound for pound, but it is also very expensive. Can those calories still be found, but at a more economical price? Yes!

Below, we are going to go through a couple examples of how you can utilize different feeding strategies and to see which formula might be the best for you, your calves, and your wallet.

Here are 3 different formulas of milk replacer, with their respective prices, and how many pounds of powder you would need to feed, of each formula, to achieve the same number of Mcals per day (5.05 Mcal/day), which is enough for a 100 lb. calf to gain approximately 1 lb. per day in 32F weather. 

As you can see, each solids level is slightly different. That is the only factor that was changed between each scenario, volume fed was kept the same at 8 quarts per day.

Starting with the 21/19, you would have to feed 8 quarts at 14.5% to achieve 5.05 Mcals/day. You would feed a total of 132 pounds of powder over an 8 week period, which comes out to $3.43/calf/day. 

In order to achieve those same results with a 24/20, you would still have to feed 129 pounds of milk replacer, but the price per bag is $15 higher, which comes out to $4.06/calf/day.

Finally, we have a 24/24. You would have to feed 124 pounds of milk replacer which totals $3.80 per calf per day. 

As you can see from these few examples, there are many options when it comes to feeding to achieve the same number of calories, which at the end of the day, calories equals growth. 

In the second part of the chart, you can see more clearly an example of what would happen if you fed the same diet to each calf in terms of solids and pounds of milk replacer, to see how that would look from a calories standpoint, and a cost standpoint if you were to do the exact same feeding program for each formula! As you can see, there isn’t a large difference in calories consumed, but there is a $25-$30 difference in the money spent from birth to weaning. 

With this in mind, it might raise a few questions. Can I feed solids at 14.5-15.5%? Are all calories the same, no matter where they come from? Does feeding more fat provide additional benefits to the calf other than strictly calories? 

We are going to answer all of these questions and more in our next article! Like AVA Group Inc. on Facebook or sign up for our monthly newsletter here to make sure you don’t miss it!

If you are interested in a personalized cost analysis of your milk replacer, reach out to your local Denkavit representative today!