Creep feeding question?

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tom4018

Dumb Old Farmer
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Never had used a creep feeder before and was wondering if they can eat too much feed. Local feed mill suggested a mix of equal parts of corn, soy hulls and distillers grain with added vitamins and mineral. Whats your thoughts on that? Thanks.
 
The large commercial mills use a limiter, frequently salt, to keep them from overeating. I'm not a fan of wet distillers grains. Calves don't seem to be able to really eat enough of it to do much good. We use pelleted corn gluten with very little problem other then a palatability issue with some calves. We prefer a completely pelleted feed to prevent sorting.
Our standard ration that we feed whenever we feed grain is 50% corn gluten, 30% pelleted soy hulls, and about 19.9% cracked corn. the other little bit is minerals, vitamins, and ground limestone. I have no idea what the limestone is for but all of the rations around here include it. Just misc. ideas and thoughts

dun


tom4018":16s0eddz said:
Never had used a creep feeder before and was wondering if they can eat too much feed. Local feed mill suggested a mix of equal parts of corn, soy hulls and distillers grain with added vitamins and mineral. Whats your thoughts on that? Thanks.
 
We use pelleted feed also. I was amazed how much a cow can sort out of mixed feed unless it is held together with somehting like molasses. I've not had any problems with overeating and the cost is not too expensive either.
 
I'm assuming your talking about a creep feeder for your calves? A previous post mentioned cows?

We have creep feeders available in all of our pastures, primarily because we sell a lot of show and replacement females, so we want to boost their growth as much as possible.

We use a locally mixed "creep ration" that is 11-12% protein. Depending on the price of the ingredients, it's included cotton seed, dairy pellets, ground corn and oats and molasses. We've never had a problem with the calves overeating.. they tend to visit the feeder once or twice a day.
 
Purina has a product called "accu-ration" that I just love. You start out with a regular creep feed, I figure about 50# per calf. Once the calves have that about gone you then put a 20/80% blend (accu-rat/corn) in the feeder. Over the past years I can figure on an input of about $25/calf. You limit the amount of feed they eat by how strong the mix is. Without a limiter of some type the calves will overeat and get fleshy. Some of the neighbors will have an input of about $50/calf by not having a limiter of some sort. You can use this creep for all stages, toward weaning I'll be at around 40/60 (ar/corn). If your cows need some help you can go 80/20 but I don't find that cost effective, it just shows the versitility. Have never tried salt limiters but have heard it'll ruin your feeder in no time. Your feed dealer should be able to advise on introducing new feeds as well as trough and feeder management so I won't go into that area.
 

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