The use of high-quality milk replacers in calf rearing can provide a number of organizational, economic and health benefits. A Polish dairy has implemented a method of producing milk replacers that is unique in the country.
The period of feeding calves with liquid feed is one of the most important stages of calf rearing, which largely affects the future usefulness of the dairy cow. Since whole milk substitutes appeared on the market, there has been a dilemma as to what to give calves – milk or milk replacer.
An indisputable issue is the feeding strategy in the first days of the calf’s life, when the cow produces colostrum. It is assumed that colostrum occurs in the first 5 days after calving. However, in today’s highly productive animals, this period is often shortened and some breeders introduce milk replacer already after 2-3 days of life.
What are the advantages of milk replacer?
After the period of colostrum feeding, more and more farmers switch to feeding calves with milk replacer. What it comes from? The basic justification is to simplify the organization of work in the calf house. Giving milk to each calf from its mother would require separate milking of these animals with a milking machine, which would significantly extend the milking period, but would also require additional cleaning of the milking equipment.
The organization of work on larger farms sometimes excludes the use of milk, especially if they use calf feeding stations that serve calves with milk produced from milk replacer in the tank. Such a system minimizes the workload related to the daily feeding of calves, which is limited to training problematic animals and controlling the system managing the feeding station.
An additional problem when feeding milk is its changing composition during lactation. With the high yields achieved today, milk is characterized by a reduced dry matter content, and therefore the concentration of nutrients. Variable milk composition can be discussed in a particular way when calves are fed bulk milk. In the case of milk replacer, calves are provided with a drink with a constant composition, which may, to some extent, reduce the occurrence of food diarrhea.
Important features of milk replacers are also microbiological purity, ease of storage and use. In the case of milk feeding, the microbiological quality varies, especially if the so-called waste milk that does not meet the collection criteria, e.g. from cows undergoing antibiotic treatment for mastitis. In this case, calves are given antibiotics in their milk that they do not need at the moment, which increases antibiotic resistance in the herd.
Economic calculation is crucial in herd management
Given the current high production costs, when managing a farm, decisions should be made based on economic calculations. This is also the case with feeding calves. Although the prices of milk replacers have increased significantly in recent years, these changes were commensurate with the increase in milk prices, from which substrates for the production of milk replacers are largely derived. Ultimately, feeding milk replacers is still more economically advantageous compared to whole milk.
A certain solution to the dilemma: milk or milk replacer is the offer that the Polmlek dairy offered to its suppliers. The company’s offer includes the 5th line of milk replacers “Polmlek4CALVES” is produced from milk supplied by cooperating farmers, which creates the so-called “milk circle”. The milk produced by the breeder goes to a processing plant, and then part of it returns to the farm in the form of milk replacer.
The preparations are made using technology that was first implemented in Poland. “Polmlek4CALVES” are created based on advanced technological lines, previously available mainly for food products, which guarantees quality and precision in the selection of ingredients comparable to food. Polmlek conducted a long-term research and development program before implementing full-scale production.
It is worth noting that the offered milk replacers are intended for use during a specific period of calf rearing. For the first weeks of life, it is recommended to use preparations with the highest level of protein, the composition of which is based mainly on dairy raw materials, which can be used throughout the entire drinking period.
Depending on the adopted calf feeding strategy, there are also more economically advantageous solutions available for the further rearing period, with lower concentrations of nutrients, when the share of solid feed in the calves’ diet increases, meeting their nutritional needs to an increasing extent.
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