When to increase MR for 3 week old Holstein calves

sassafras manor · #1 05/03/10, 09:21 AM

We have 3 Holstein bull calves that range in age from 3-4 weeks old and was wondering when/if to increase the amount of MR they are getting. The currently are each receiving 2 qts in the morning and again in the evening. When they were younger they would be content with the 2 qts and not lust for the bottle as much when it was empty but now they really seem like they would like more. They have free choice water and hay along with some calf starter in their stall. They do not seem very interested in the water unless they are suckling my finger submerged in the bucket and then they will take teh water no problem. My question is when should i bump the amount of MR they get up to 2 1/2 qts. per feeding? And if so should it be gradual over a day or two or just start this evening?

Curtis B · #2 05/03/10, 11:14 AM

I'm no expert, but I never gave more than you are giving. They should start eating the hay and grain to get the extra nutriants they need. I started my calves on sweet feed by hand, it had molases in it, so it was more palatable. I then would dump it over hay, so they were getting hay with it. After they were eating the grain in the hay, I slowly took away the grain until they just had hay. By 7 wks I was weening mine off MR, and at 8 wks they were soley on pasture.

topside1 · #3 05/03/10, 11:26 AM

The reason they are lusting the bottle is because they are still hungry. Don't increase their milk amounts at all, their hunger should be turned toward eating calf starter grain, and pasture greens. Feeding them more milk will only slow the rumen development process. Don't allow those cute faces to con you into anything...Let the lusting continue...Topside

mamahen · #4 05/03/10, 12:57 PM

With my three guys, I would take a small handfull (1/8 cup) of starter and put it in their mouth. Once they caught on, they went wild when they heard you open the barrel it was in. I also switched to the bucket after 1 week. Much easier. And anything that was put in the bucket (water, feed) was something yummy in their opinion!

We also kept a wall mounted waterer in the stall. Cleaned it every day & replaced with fresh water. At first they only took warmish water from their buckets. But when they were thirsty, they drank! They also started eating hay/grass fairly early. I'd say at 2-3 weeks they were fairly interested in it. By the time they were weaned (10 weeks) they were eating 2 bales a day and 7 cups of starter (3.5 cups, 2X a day).

So, no, I never gave more milk, just started them eating solids.

sammyd · #5 05/04/10, 03:59 AM

They should be eating starter and drinking water if they are a bit "peckish" during the day.
Don't bother with hay...grain and water will get their rumens developed much quicker without it.

tyusclan · #6 05/04/10, 05:22 AM

I agree with the others.

Giving more MR will not only slow down their eating solid feed, but will also increase the chance of the calves getting scours.

I do feed hay if they don't have access to grass.

sassafras manor · #7 05/04/10, 10:06 AM

Thanks for all of the replies, i will keep the MR at the same rate and continue as i was with the free choice hay and water along with the calf starter. In the next 2 weeks i will be moving our fat cattle to a different pasture away from the barn and will enlarge the area available to the calves and then they will have access to a small portion of pasture. Once they have access to the pasture should i continue to offer them hay as well?

Thanks

bigmudder77 · #8 05/04/10, 11:22 AM

some times i uped the milk replacer to 2 scoops and feed more water (like 5qts twice a day in the last few weeks of them being on milk) then cut it back to once a day then every other day and pretty soon they were on all grain and hay and grass and it made them big calves

but the cost the the milk keep going up and i stopped that it started out this winter at $31.55 now its $49.95 for a 50lb bag same stuff but the demand went up and so did the price

and i was giving mine 2 bags of milk per calf and i also gave some 1 bag per calf same age with in a few days and you can see which ones got the 2 bags there much bigger

but i will say this do what you want as there your calves EVERYONE can tell you what to do but in the end there your calves and do what you want with them

but get them on the bucket its so much less work and it helps them drink the water better. and i always have a chicken in with my calves and it shows them how to drink water out of the bucket so with in the first week all i did was put the bucket in and push there head in the bucket and they drank it all (some will be a little stupid and you need to use a nipple in the bucket but most of mine went right for the bucket with out any work) and i have raised over 1000 calves in my life time and the best ones were brown swiss i had a couple day old drinking out of the bucket the rest were at least a week old and some were couple weeks old cause they just were not getting the whole bucket thing and after i started putting a chicken with them they were all on the bucket with in the week