Creep Question

[Carrie]

What are ya'll creep feeding your unweaned, 300-400 pound calves? Anyone willing to divulge their no-fail recipes? Thanks in advance.

 

[TXBobcat]

If we creep feed at all, we just use 10% -14% creep pellets from the feed mill. No special recipe.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks TX. I'm not familiar with pellet feed. What is it comprised of? We've been using a combo of cracked corn and baby beef manna. A friend of ours who raises high end show cattle, told us we should add cotton seed hulls and a whole bunch of other stuff. I don't want to underfeed, but at the same time, this fellow has given us some pretty "high-end" advice on other occasions. (Spent more on hair care products for our first show than I did for an entire year for my familiy-and I've got 3 girls. Our beauties get their hair washed with Suave now!) Just wanted to know if what we are feeding sounds reasonable to you guys with more experience. Our cattle are out on good pasture as well. Thanks again TX and any one else who might reply.

 

[Carrie]

Dog gone it. I forgot to sign in .......again! Post #3 was mine, but all ya'll
probably figured that out already, right?

 

[Kelly]

I feed a custom mix of all natural - Gold Ribbon 40 pellets (Land O Lakes) with cracked corn. It has all the vitamins and minerals in the pellets also. I sometimes add in a little soybean meal if they seem to need the extra protein.

 

[dun]

Dog gone it. I forgot to sign in .......again! Post #3 was mine, but all ya'll
probably figured that out already, right?

Each company incorporates diffierent things in their pelleted feeds. Minerals, vitamins, soy hull, corn or corn gluten, various grains, cottonseed meal, etc. It all depends on the formulation of what they're making. Some ffeds will consist of pellets made up from multiple ingredients with some straight ingredient pellets included. The advantage to pelleted feeds is they can't sort out the stuff they like, and it's generally more economically priced. The disadvantage is that some animals take a while to get to the point that they eat it well.

dun

 

[Larry Sansom]

What are ya'll creep feeding your unweaned, 300-400 pound calves? Anyone willing to divulge their no-fail recipes? Thanks in advance.

Unless you are going to show these calves - do not creep feed. The show boys are the only ones that even come close to justifying that extra cost. You will never know what quality of cow you have if you prop her up with $$$ and creep feed. Seems you learned a lesson on the show washing - unless you want another expensive lesson, just let mom and grass grow your calf - you will make more profit, just won't have artificial weaning weights to brag about.

 

[C & C Land & Catt]

depends on the price of creep

 

[dun]

depends on the price of creep

A local gent maintaines that he can put a pound on a calf for half a buck a pound and sell the calf for a buck plus a pound. He feels that it's found money. Could be, but I've never figured out how he gets the gain he claims for the cost of creep. Of course he owns the local feed mill and that may be part of the secret.

dun

 

[Craig-TX]

depends on the price of creep

A local gent maintaines that he can put a pound on a calf for half a buck a pound and sell the calf for a buck plus a pound. He feels that it's found money. Could be, but I've never figured out how he gets the gain he claims for the cost of creep. Of course he owns the local feed mill and that may be part of the secret.

dun

You raise a good point Dun. Creeping calves used to be much more common than it is these days, so obviously it used to pay to do it. But if you think about it, those calves (along with the mules) were getting oats etc that were raised right there on the farm. The only processed feed they might ever see would be sweet feed and that was just homegrown hay that had been taken to the hammer mill and had molasses added. Even that was mostly just for the milk cows. Since the family farm has gone by the wayside the cost of input has changed the whole equation.

Craig-TX

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

I think Craig and Dun hit the nail on the head. I know that my own grandpa fed all of his calves with feed raised right on the farm, corn & milo mostly, plus a little purchased oats if it was plentiful & cheap, and then with some "rodent butts" added by the local grinder . He didn't know it, but he was pretty vertically integrated. The more middlemen the cattle producer can avoid the better off he will be IMHO.

 

[Anonymous]

Does creep feeding save wear and tear on the mamas? I was told that moms of creep fed calves breed back faster. Our herd is too small to gather this type of statistical data with any reliability. Anyone looked at the economics of creep feeding from this view point?

Thank you Dun, Craig, Arnold, C&C, Larry and Kelly. We have only a small herd of registered Angus so it's great to be able to pick the brains of you "big guys." I appreciate the time and effort you give in answering what I'm sure must often seem like, "well duh!" questions.

 

[dun]

Does creep feeding save wear and tear on the mamas? I was told that moms of creep fed calves breed back faster. Our herd is too small to gather this type of statistical data with any reliability. Anyone looked at the economics of creep feeding from this view point?

Thank you Dun, Craig, Arnold, C&C, Larry and Kelly. We have only a small herd of registered Angus so it's great to be able to pick the brains of you "big guys." I appreciate the time and effort you give in answering what I'm sure must often seem like, "well duh!" questions.

As with everything else in this business, you have to pencil whip the numbers to see if it pays. If you have a good forage base the girls will breed back on time. If I was having a serious problem with them not returning to cycling and they were loosing condition I might consider creeping.

dun