Page 31 - MWC 8-6-20s

The Midwest Cattleman · August 6, 2020 · P31

CREEP FEEDING 0.30 pound more per day pellet form can be more con- of forage is important when
continued from page 19 compared to non-creep fed venient to use and often will using a high-protein creep
adding salt to the creep feed calves. be of similar or lower cost to feed.
as an intake limiter. Soybean meal, canola meal, those made up on the farm. Economic Benefits
Research has reported dehydrated alfalfa pellets, or Data suggests that the Although creep feeding can
feed to gain with calves fed a commercial protein sup- feed to gain conversion with significantly increase wean-
high energy creep feeds to be plement without urea are all high-protein creep feeds aver- ing weight, costs associated
8:1 (range 15:1 to 7:1). This potential high protein creep ages 4:1, which is better than with creep feeding can result
means it takes 8 pounds of feeds. Creep feed should not the conversion with high-en- in minimal economic bene-
creep feed on a dry matter contain urea for young calves ergy creep feeds. Additional- fit. Therefore, when evaluat-
basis to gain one pound. An- since they do not have a fully ly, calves normally consume ing the financial benefit of
other way of looking at it is functional rumen. Commer- less creep feed and gain less creep feeding, it is import-
calves fed high energy creep cially available, nutritional- weight over the creep feed- ant to understand the rela-
feed typically gain 0.20 to ly balanced, creep-feeds in a ing period. Adequate supply tionship between the cost of
the creep feed consumed and
the value of the additional
weight gained. Table 2 shows
an example budget for calcu-
lating returns per head for
creep feeding. In this exam-
ple, it costs more to provide
the creep feed than the value
of the added weaning weight.
Columns are provided within
table 2 for you to use to eval-
uate the returns from creep
feeding in your situation.

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