The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: sokel on March 10, 2013, 09:14:11 pm
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When is a good age to change a calf over from calf creep to calf rearer ? Our 2 jerseys are on at lib creep as thats what they where getting when we brought them home.
He did say to change them over to the larger calf rearer once they grew a bit.
One was born at the end of November the other at the begining on january and both seem to just suck the creep up
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Ours tend to be started on a course mix, which would be fed at the same age as the creep, they are then moved over to the cattle nuts at 6-7 weeks to get them ready for weaning.
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Your calves being already weaned and eating cake well, I'd just start mixing a rearer cake with their creep and gradually switch them over. The rearer will probably say on the bag/label if there is a minimum age it is suitable for.
Our regular stockblend (16% or 18%) is for cattle 'aged 3 months and older'. I can't get our calves to eat creep, they only want what the mothers are eating ::) so they all get stockblend right through. But I don't wean at less than 3 months so they only eat a little until then. I start taking mum off at night, and leaving it longer and longer, so they get hungry and eat more cake. Then when they're weaned they know how to eat it and use it to replace the milk they are no longer getting.
(I'm talking my house Jerseys' calves and set-ons; the sucklers get to keep their calves on them until at least 8 months when they're sold, or when winter arrives for those being kept on longer.)
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Thanks for the advice.
Sally they are still both getting milk morning and night :innocent: seeing as we had a sack in we might aswell use it ::)
Wheelbirks seem to give them at lib creep from day one so they really do tuck into it.
I will add some other too it when we can get out, we have well over 2ft of snow on the drive this morning
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We've a picture postcard winter wonderland here this morning too - not quite the depth you have up there, though.
I'd have done exactly what you've done - use up the milk and start to introduce a rearer cake about now :thumbsup:
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I feed mine ad-lib creep until 10 - 12 weeks then onto a 16% beef nut at the rate of 1.5kg twice a day.
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Could they have a few brewers Grains in the diet aswell ? Not instead of the creep just as an extra bucket ?
We have unlimited access to them so usualy pick them up fresh every other day while they are still steaming hot
everything else we have here loves them
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BH says "Aye"
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:thumbsup: Thanks Sally