SE Manitoba | Jim Dandy - 1/23/2020 09:52
My calves for many years would disagree with you statement "Calves generally aren't real enthusiastic about distillers". I had a grower ration formulated by my feed man that was at least 50% distillers with rolled corn, oats and a balancer pellet. The calves grew good on it without getting fat. I ran out of starter for the baby calves so I tried using some of the grower mix. They loved it. Some people raised concerns about sulfur levels, but I had no problems. The calves started on dry feed better than the starter pellet I had been using. It was kinda funny seeing all the calves golden orange noses from the distillers. At weaning the calves were already on the grower ration and did not have to adapt to any new feed. The heifers were the best milking 70-100+ lbs of milk at freshening. I understand about fines, but I would give baby calves fresh feed everyday or so and after they stated eating it they would clean it right up. I feel a little distillers in a starter ration is a good thing and worth a try. Good Luck!
Well tried DDGs here and found that soymeal worked even better for starting.
That was for starting - - - - after start and when they were actually eating regular - - - more like cleaning up regular - - - usually getting clean by next feeding (feeding 2x/day).
I tried to wait for a bit (found that adding DDGs got them backed off if there weren't real used to the program) just to set the idea real strong.
First I added cracked corn - - - - slowly - - -- like in 4 or 5 steps.
By the time I was at say 40 to 50% cracked corn I would start adding DDGs.
This I found worked better if I broke it into more and longer steps.
Sort of 5 or 6 or more steps with a good 3 days minimum per step - - - better seemed to be longer time on each step.
Will admit that I got to where my protein balance was 50% soymeal and 50% DDGs.
If I could've gotten canola meal I would have likely gone a 1/3rd split for each.
May not have been the absolute cheapest ration but getting a great start on the little turkeys I though likely made up for any higher cost but haven't checked that thinking with a trial. |