NEW RESEARCH WILL REVOLUTIONISE THE WAY WE FEED CALVES
By Georgina Thomas, Trouw Nutrition Ruminant Technical Business Manager
New findings from the Trouw Nutrition LifeStart calf research programme highlight opportunities to rethink calf milk replacer formulation. Rethinking the objectives of calf milk replacers and paying closer attention to the formulation will have significant benefits for calf performance.
The LifeStart programme is a major R&D commitment looking at the development of heifer calves right through until they enter the milking herd. The research is allowing us to develop new evidence based approaches to calf nutrition. Every year a significant proportion of all calves will be fed below
their growth potential, having an impact on sustainability and profit. With pressure on dairy margins and all costs, optimising calf nutrition must be a business priority. Dr Mike Steele, Assistant Professor University of Alberta, Canada,
has pointed out that the impact of early life nutrition is one of the most significant advances in dairy nutrition of our time, with the potential to revolutionize attitudes to calf rearing. The LifeStart project has helped quantify how the management of calves plays a key role in setting lifetime performance. Our unique approach is based on harnessing the benefits of
metabolic programming to unlock genetic potential. The research has demonstrated that feeding calves the elevated LifeStart planes of nutrition has a significant impact on gene expression.
QUALITY AS WELL AS QUANTITY Some of the initial findings surrounded how much milk replacer to feed, with benefits from feeding at higher levels. Enhanced feed rates promote better growth and also have a direct effect on organ development, gene expression and milk yield in the first lactation. While many farmers are now looking to feed higher levels of milk
replacer, increasing the amount of milk replacer fed is only part of the story. It is also important to consider the quality of the product being used.
As Figure 1 shows, the nutritional requirements of calves change
with growth rates. Many current formulations of milk replacer are not optimised for feeding at higher levels, increasing the risk of over or underfeeding specific nutrients. The new research highlights areas where
Figure 1: Effect of daily growth rate on nutrient requirements for calves
the formulation and presentation of milk replacers can be enhanced to support better calf development and growth on high feed rates. We need to look at feeding calves smarter, understanding more
about the metabolic pathways in the calf and the impact of a range of factors including concentration, feed rate, feeding method and most importantly the quality of the replacer. To do this we need to go beyond the headline numbers on the
bag. All milk replacers look and smell fairly similar, but there can be major differences in quality which in turn means they will perform very differently. Commercial milk replacers are often compared and evaluated
based on declarations on the label. Discussion rarely delves into what makes up the components of energy, protein and mineral balance and the potential effect on digestion, absorption or growth, meaning farmers can’t make a fully informed decision. Factors such as energy sources, fatty acid composition, protein quality, amino acid:energy balance, trace element and vitamin content, nutrient synchrony and how the replacer is processed will influence how calves will perform. None of these are detailed on the label. A quality product may cost more but if it delivers better growth and
supports health it is a wise investment, and the findings of the LifeStart project mean we can now produce a higher quality product which is better designed to meet the calf’s requirements, translating into improved performance. Price should not be the issue. The issue is about changing
perceptions and explaining the superior ROI of quality products rather than simply comparing the label and the price.
THE CLUES ARE IN COW’S MILK It is important that research is used to develop milk replacer formulations, and to do this we should use whole milk as the biological reference. If you want a calf to grow well, feed it the product that has evolved to meet its requirements. If you look at how a suckled calf is fed, it is fed adlib warm milk,
feeding more than five times a day and consuming approximately 1.5kgDM/day, which is vastly more that the intakes on most calf rearing systems.
Significantly the composition of the milk itself is very different too.
We compared milk replacers with the milk produced by a suckler cow (Figure 2). This is important as a suckler produces what the calf wants, while a dairy cow has been bred for yield which has a dilution effect on milk quality Suckler cow milk is higher fat than milk replacers but with less
lactose. Very importantly, both the energy and protein in cow’s milk are far more digestible than those found in widely available milk replacers. The perceived wisdom in calf rearing is that protein is the first
limiting nutrient and the emphasis has been on developing higher protein content milk replacers.
PAGE 48 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 FEED COMPOUNDER
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
