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As July draws to a close, it is time to start thinking about introducing creep feeders to calves that will be sold as weanlings this autumn.
January- to March-born calves should be somewhere in the region of 250kg to 300kg liveweight by August.
As milk production in cows starts to tail off, and grass becomes more variable as dry matter falls, offering calves 1kg to 2kg/day of concentrate feed will help drive weight gain until sale time.
Separating calves
But before adopting a blanket creep feeding approach, it is worthwhile to split the calves into a group of male animals and a group of heifer calves.
This way, you can target higher levels of concentrate to bull calves, so as heifers do not become over fat before October.
A more cost effective option is to separate the bull calves and introduce creep feeding, delaying the feeding of heifers until the end of August.
Feeding options
Calves can be fed in a number of ways. With a static ad-lib feeder, the hopper only needs filling every few days.
However, there is no way of regulating daily intakes. Some calves will eat double their allowance, while others will not use the feeder.
Offering concentrates in portable feed troughs works well, but calves will need access to a hard core laneway, or be creeping ahead of cows to have sole access to the concentrates.
There is less chance of overfeeding calves using this method, but it requires a daily concentrate allocation and the set-up required may not be practical for every farmer.
SHARING OPTIONS: