Creep Feed - What do you use?

[Son of Butch]

We are creep feeding Purina Rangeland calf creep 14 B68 medicated (Bovatec) $200 ton
14% protein
1% fat
25% fiber
.80% cal
.40% phos
.50% salt
.70% potassium
zinc sulfate 225 ppm
copper 75 ppm
selenium 1.0 ppm
Vitamin A 10,000 iu/lb
Vitamin D 1,000 iu
Vitamin E 10 iu

Price $200 ton (10 cents lb)
I was thinking of extending it with my own ground shell corn $2.80 bushel (5 cents lb)
Purina Nutritionist says don't do it, corn will add too much energy and the calves will get too fat too early.
We feed out the calves ourselves. Pasture grass is pretty much done here, free choice hay with their dams.
What do you think?

What do you feed?
What does it cost?

Any comments appreciated.

 

[RanchMan90]

$200 a ton for a 16% commodity mix here. Your feed looks a little more complete.

 

[Till-Hill]

We are creep feeding Purina Rangeland calf creep 14 B68 medicated (Bovatec) $200 ton
14% protein
1% fat
25% fiber
.80% cal
.40% phos
.50% salt
.70% potassium
zinc sulfate 225 ppm
copper 75 ppm
selenium 1.0 ppm
Vitamin A 10,000 iu/lb
Vitamin D 1,000 iu
Vitamin E 10 iu

Price $200 ton (10 cents lb)
I was thinking of extending it with my own ground shell corn $2.80 bushel (5 cents lb)
Purina Nutritionist says don't do it, corn will add too much energy and the calves will get too fat too early.
We feed out the calves ourselves. Pasture grass is pretty much done here, free choice hay with their dams.
What do you think?

What do you feed?
What does it cost?

Any comments appreciated.

how much are oats up there? I got some for $2/but. 2 ton mix I put 800# ddg, 120 bp balancer from Purina and rest 50/50 corn/oats. I don't know why you couldn't add corn and some ddg or corn gluten pellets to the range pellet. It's a grand feed. Used it for years. Just been trying use more of our own feed or not been creeping at all

 

[Son of Butch]

I grow corn (but not oats) and would like to feed what I grow.
It would be easy for me to grind the shell corn and mix it with the Purina Rangeland pellet for the calves.

I think the Purina nutritionist's hidden reason for saying don't do it, is that I would be buying less feed from them.

 

[dieselbeef]

citrus pellets

 

[angus9259]

If I was going to fatten the calves on my own farm, I'd use the corn. I don't understand the objection - unless some are going to be retained.

But my favorite creep is oats because I retain.

 

[angus9259]

Is that a bulk price or do you buy in bags?

 

[5S Cattle]

If I was going to fatten the calves on my own farm, I'd use the corn. I don't understand the objection - unless some are going to be retained.

But my favorite creep is oats because I retain.

Just oats?

 

[kenny thomas]

citrus pellets

How much are citrus pellets now? Bulk trailer loads.

 

[Son of Butch]

Is that a bulk price or do you buy in bags?

The Purina Rangeland is bagged and delivered for $200 ton. I feel they give me a lot of service for the price,
so no complaints there.

 

[SmokinM]

$200 a ton- WOW. Low grade crap in a bag is $275 a ton here. Will have to price that at the local dealer, curious how much difference there is. I know I pay close to double that for Accuration creep. Shelled corn here is around $4 a bushel and most won't sell it to you. At $200 a ton I could afford to feed mine.

 

[angus9259]

$200 a ton- WOW. Low grade crap in a bag is $275 a ton here. Will have to price that at the local dealer, curious how much difference there is. I know I pay close to double that for Accuration creep. Shelled corn here is around $4 a bushel and most won't sell it to you. At $200 a ton I could afford to feed mine.

This is my situation too. Just got a price from my guy on the 14% purina and it was $320 a ton.

 

[Stocker Steve]

- Raise some cover crop mixes but usually use graze these off in August during the summer slump.
- Raise some oats and start creep feeding with that once pasture gets washy in September. Local oats was $1.50/bu last year and $2/bu this year. Calves look good on it. Feed conversion is ???
- Start using some corn when the weather turns in November. Have tried fence line feeding silage, grazing standing corn, and a oats/corn creep blend. Best approach depends on herd size, sex, and pasture layout.

I think a low cost Artic Vortex approach is to leave calves on the bale grazed cows, and set up a creep gate to supplement calves till the annual January price bounce. The other low cost option is too work on creep grazing of standing feed.

Sex is always a big factor. An optimizer would have different feeding approaches for heifers and steers. :idea:

 

[gizmom]

grass

gizmom

 

[angus9259]

If I was going to fatten the calves on my own farm, I'd use the corn. I don't understand the objection - unless some are going to be retained.

But my favorite creep is oats because I retain.

Just oats?

Works great - when they're cheap. I wouldn't do anything except I fall calve in a northern climate so my calves are nursing in January in the snow.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Literature is all over on creep feed conversion. Do you have any personal trusted information on this?

 

[skyhightree1]

Jumpstart

 

[JSCATTLE]

Creep feed has always been so expensive here and the critters eat so much it doesn't pencil out. I wish we could get feed for 200 a ton.

 

[Black and Good]

I have it custom mixed for $200.00 per ton. They mix for whatever I'm trying to do like if I'm bout to wean and the feeder is going to follow then into the weaning lot they will bump up the limiter so they don't over do it. B&G

 

[angus9259]

Literature is all over on creep feed conversion. Do you have any personal trusted information on this?

It works great for me but I'm as harsh as it gets - nursing calves over the winter in the snow. calves do great - but by the time I wean them they are eating 10 - 15 lbs per day of oats so it's not cheap. If I calved in the spring I wouldn't do it.