Tips for Feeding Milk Replacer in Cold Weather: Interview with Jennifer Wiley
Jennifer Wiley grew up as a heifer raiser in northeast Wisconsin where her love for calves grew. She attended college at UW-Platteville where she studied animal science. Jennifer started her career in dairy nutrition working for a local feed mill. Realizing she wanted to be closer to calf health and nutrition, Jennifer took a role with Cargill as a calf and heifer specialist. She has been there for the past 12 years. In that time Jennifer held multiple roles in addition to calf and heifer specialist. She has been a sales manager and now is a sales leader, as well as receiving her MBA from UW-Whitewater. Jennifer’s current role allows her to support and lead the nation’s calf and heifer team, as well as still get a little on farm time to hands on help producers raise the best calves possible.
I wanted to write a blog about feeding calves milk replacer in cold weather, and I knew Jennifer would be the authority on the subject. I asked her a few questions regarding the topic, and here are her answers!
Q: What are the benefits of feeding milk replacer over whole milk?
A: Consistency and cleanliness. With a dry product we have more control to keep it clean and consistent. You get the make-up from the bag and tag when you add water. Calves, much like cows, want consistency every day, which you can do with milk replacer.
Even pasteurized milk isn’t clean every time. If you put something dirty in you still might be getting something dirty out. Sometimes pasteurizers fail. Milk replacer is a catch all and is more consistent.
As I have seen people move from milk replacer to whole milk across the regions, what we have noticed is a big drop in starter intake because of the higher fat and energy content of the whole milk versus the milk replacer. With a milk replacer we can control starter intake a lot better as we have pulled the fat level down to a point where the calf does want to start eating dry feed earlier. The more grain intake we can get before transition at weaning typically means we have a smoother transition when we pull that milk away. Grain intake is something you can manage with whole milk too; you just need to be cognizant of what you are doing.
Milk replacers are also an avenue to bring in additives and vitamin/mineral supplements. Typically, we include Bovatec or some other sort of coccidiosis control. Milk replacer is a one stop approach to having those products in your milk, where you would need to add that all on top of the whole milk.
Every farm is different though, and you need to weigh out if the employees can manage the mixing and weighing of a dry product to decide if it is the best fit for your farm.
Q: What milk replacer performs most comparable to whole milk.
A: I think it depends on how you balance it. There are some higher fat milk replacers out there that are more comparable to whole milk. But honestly, the best we can do with milk replacer is to have equal fat and protein. We don’t typically want the ratio to be inverted. There are some reasons behind that. Number one is cost, because you end up overfeeding fat. A calf digests protein more quickly than fat. We typically shoot for a 1.4 ratio of protein to fat to meet the needs of the calf. With all that being said, as the calf is thrown cold weather, stress, etc. energy needs go up in the early phase. Which I think is why a lot of people like the results they see with whole milk because the calf is getting more energy early on. They are more prepared to fight off disease and they grow a little better at the get go because they have more Mcals of energy. But then again, we see longer term effects of not transitioning to dry feed as early and as well at weaning.
Finding a neutral 20:20, 25:20, 24:24, whatever it is, is probably the closest when it comes to a protein to fat ratio and then match solids to solids. The caveat is we need to remember what the benefits of milk replacer are and that we can transition that calf and get better starter intake the second half of the wet phase. If you want to mimic whole milk, maybe you add fat supplementation the first few weeks to get the benefit of extra energy when the calf isn’t eating a lot of starter feed yet and then pull back the fat the second half of the wet phase to encourage dry feed intake.
Milk replacers will never digest like whole milk but just remember we have changed the genetics of our cattle, and we fed them in a way that increases the milk fat to be higher than it naturally would be if they were just making milk to feed their calf. Whole milk is no longer a perfect balance for what the calf needs, we have made it to be what we want it to be for processing and selling.
Q: What are the benefits and parameters for changing milk replacer formulas for the colder winter months.
A: Typically, the easiest to implement is just to feed more total volume. Inherently, more volume will mean more energy. With increasing the amount our ratios are still formulated, and the calf won’t have a disadvantage by feeding more. That makes it easy to implement adding a third feeding or adding an extra quart per feeding when temperatures drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. When temperatures drop below the thermoneutral zone calves need roughly 1/3 more metabolizable energy (ME). Please see attached graph to calculate the amount of ME and calf milk replacer (CMR) in the temperature zone where your calves currently are.
I would say if you were going to go and add an energy product like a 7:60, you would want to add a quarter of a pound just for the first few weeks. Farms that are already feeding a very high volume of milk (3 quarts 3x), won’t need to adjust anything for the winter months as they are already feeding high levels of fat, and won’t see a benefit. It will depend on where your milk program starts and where you will need to go to feed for the winter months.
(Source: Calf Notes #121)
(Source: Calf Notes #121)
Q: Is adding fat a good way to increase energy to the calf during cold weather? What fat sources should we look for?
A: Most milk replacer manufacturers are potentially making some sort of fat product. Most of them are close to a 7:60. There is a point you can only feed so much fat, so I usually just recommend farms to feed more volume. A lot of times when producers increase the amount, they feed in the winter they will continue that throughout the rest of the year because of the results they get and the calves look beautiful all year long.
Jennifer, thank you for some great thoughts on feeding calves in cold weather! If you would like to contact Jennifer about help with your calf program, please email her at Jennifer_Wiley@cargill.com.
Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.