Feeding Soured Colostrum

[john in la]

Are any of you guys; excuse me people using soured colostrum instead of whole milk or replacer to bottle feed calves.
What is your advise on the subject????????

I need to find a way to cut my feed bill and since this stuff is free that may work. It is just the idea of keeping sour milk in big drums for 3 or 4 weeks that turns my stomach. Not to mention the extra work involved.
I realize this will not work during the summer for me but I was thinking about trying it this fall.

[milkinpigs]

I don't think it would hurt them any but it might be hard getting them started.You might think about getting some hogs....they would LOVE it...every time they'd see you coming they would start climbing the fence.

[john in la]

Originally Posted by milkinpigs

I don't think it would hurt them any but it might be hard getting them started.You might think about getting some hogs....they would LOVE it...every time they'd see you coming they would start climbing the fence.

I think you got it backwards. Let me explain.

I do not have the colostrum. I would need to haul it in.

It works if you start the calf on it at about day 4. Right about the time they arrive here. It is fresh the first day. 1 day old the second day and so on so they adapt to the bitter taste it gets from fermenting.

The problem is you can not mix different colostrum together because it ferments at different rate if it comes from the first day or the third day of milking. So you need many pales per calf. It can be mixed together after about a week once it has fermented fully.

Was just wondering if anyone has ever used it before.
Better yet does anyone know of a dairy forum I could ask this question on.

Thanks

[milkinpigs]

I understand your scenario, The big dairies in west Tx and N.M. have started pasturing their colostrum and store in bulk tanks to keep it cool and agitated.Here, from Nov. until March you can store colostrum in 5 gal buckets with lids for5 days,without souring. Then stirr really well and there are no lumps. Unless you are feeding it up in a short time; I don't see how the logistics of it will save that much money, considering time involved.

[Up North]

I don't have much experience beyond keeping colostrum a few days to save for a calf, but this link has been sitting in my bookmarks because I thought it was cool. Check it out.

http://www.loughries.demon.co.uk/tc.htm

Heather

[john in la]

Thanks Heather;
That has got the gears turning in my head now. Not only a way to feed colostrum but let the calves full feed off a bucket. Next best thing to being left with mom.
One of the problems with bottle calves is they can not eat enough at a time to really get them going and feeding multiple times a day is time consuming. Now if you could let a calf take its fill a little at a time by duplicating mom has to be good. The sour colostrum should fit in with this because you would not have to worry about the milk going sour from sitting in the bucket all day.

I still do not know about this whole deal though. Just can not get my nose and stomach to go along with this because of the smell.