Feeding calves high rates of milk replacer is common practice in many parts of the U.S. High milk replacer feeding rates have resulted in increased pre-weaning average daily gain (ADG). Improved feed efficiency has also been observed, most likely due to the greater digestibility of liquid feed compared to calf starter.

Capturing calf growth potential is one of the greatest benefits of automatic calf feeders. But by the time weaning comes around, we tend to take our eyes off the ball in a hurry to move calves out the door.

Raising healthy heifers is a key component to making sure that future herds are high-production. Poor growth in young calves strongly impacts subsequent milk production. As such, even during a busy calving period, calves should not be forgotten. There are four crucial areas to look at when rearing healthy heifers:

• Colostrum
• Early nutrition
• Rumen development
• Environment

Mixing milk powder in water doesn’t seem like a complicated task, but mixing properly is one of the most important things you can do for your calves. Milk replacer tags usually say to mix a specific number of ounces of powder with a specific volume of water. The confusion arises in interpretation of those simple instructions.

Whether you’ve had auto-feeders for five months or five years, you know how important it is to make sure your investment is paying off with improved calf performance from the start.

Recently, interest has increased in feeding high levels of milk replacer to calves as research has indicted that greater levels of milk replacer increase pre-weaning average daily gain and future milk production.

You have made a considerable investment in the calf auto-feeder system. But was it worth it? To determine this, focus on these two areas: calf performance and health and labor.

Before anything else can happen, the newborn calf requires immediate “best care” to get a great start in life.

Think of calf rumen development as a journey. Calves transition through nutritional stages – from milk to starter and grower to TMR. What’s being fed at each of those stages impacts rumen development.

When calves are fed twice a day and housed in individual pens or hutches, the morning feeder is greeted by loud bawling of calves anxiously awaiting their morning meal. It may have been more than 12 hours since their last meal of 2 quarts of milk or milk replacer.