Choosing a Calf Supplement

Nutrition plays a huge role in the success of calf raising. It is important to supply nutrition to meet animal requirements for maintenance, growth, and immunity. Whether the calf is being raised on whole milk or replacer, it is always a good idea to consider supplementing the milk so that all three of these requirements are met. There are a lot of calf supplements out there on the market, here are some tips for choosing which one is right for your operation.

Considerations for Supplementation

A calf supplement should include anything that may be missing from the milk diet being offered to the calf. Waste Milk is highly variable and consideration should be given to including a vitamin and mineral add pack, or even a balancer to ensure calves are getting a consistent mix each and every feeding.

Most milk replacers contain a properly balanced vitamin and mineral package, but may be missing other important nutrients such as essential fatty acids, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and immune enhancing properties. Sit down with your nutritionist, or veterinarian and discuss what components might be missing from your milk feeding program that could be enhanced with supplementation.

Reading the label

All supplement ingredients should be listed on the product label. Sometimes reading the product label on a supplement can be confusing and intimidating.  What do all those big words mean? Normally direct fed microbials and other biologically active ingredients are listed by their scientific name. Many of the most common ones are listed below.

• Functional Proteins (blood and colostrum-based plasma)
  • Spray dried plasma (SDP), spray dried serum (SDS), or globulin concentrate are ingredients collected from blood or colostrum and processed in a way that preserves their functional characteristics.
  • Functional proteins been found to increase palatability, reduce pathogen attachment and adhesion in the gut, and reduce pathogen replication. Functional proteins also facilitate gut tissue repair, and reduce the overall inflammatory response during infection. Resulting in less scours, decreased mortality, and increased gains.
  • Common ingredient found in colostrum and milk replacers. 
• Vitamin and Trace Mineral Supplements
  • According to NRC data milk fails to provide adequate levels of many essential vitamins and minerals. Most commonly low in iron, manganese, zinc, copper, iodine, cobalt, selenium, Vitamins D and E.
  • Waste milk fed to calves often varies in composition from day to day.
  • Balance pasteurized milk, or custom milk blends with a vitamin and mineral pack or specially formulated milk balancer to ensure consistency for every milk feeding.
• Mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS)
  • An extract from the outermost part of the yeast cell wall.
  • The brush like structure of MOS binds to pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and E. Coli, blocking them from binding to the intestinal wall, and causing infection.
• Live Yeast
  • Live yeast cultures reduce the risk of acidosis, improve feed conversion, increase feed intake, boost the immune system, and promote rumen development.
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces boulardii.
• Probiotics – Direct Fed Microbials
  • Promote colonization of beneficial intestinal bacteria, improve disease resistance, reduce pathogen shedding, improve intestinal immunity, and improve overall health.
  • Common strains include; Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus casei, Bacillus subtilis, Baccillus lichenfromis, Enterococcus faecium, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium thermophilum.
  • Content is normally listed on the label as colony forming units (cfu) per ounce, pound, or gram of product.
• Beta-glucan
  • Extracts from plant cell walls
  • Impact gut microbial populations and enhance immunity and prevent disease.
• Antibodies
  • Bind pathogens in the gut.
  • Provide instant immunity.
  • IgY, derived from chicken eggs
• Digestive aids
  • Digestive enzymes improve feed digestion.
    • Examples include; lipase, rennin, pepsin, trypsin, lactase, amylase, extracts from Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae.
  • Yucca schidigera
    • Source of enzymes, saponins, antioxidants, and resveratrol.
    • Improves digestion, facilitates liver and pancreatic function, protect body against damage, and improves overall animal health.

Product Comparison

When comparing products watch for the quantity of each ingredient listed. Usually ingredients included as the largest percentage of the product are listed first. Also keep in mind the more variety of beneficial ingredients a supplement contains, the more bases it will cover. As you are reading the label look for other filler type ingredients that may dilute the potency of the product as well as it’s performance.   

Once you have chosen a supplement, don’t forget to monitor it’s effectiveness.  Compare growth and health records for before and after introducing the product to verify if the benefit is worth the cost.

Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.