Make room for rumen improvement
Investing in a high quality calf starter feed from three days of age could reduce the cost per kilo of liveweight gain during rearing, and improve weaning success.
It's vital we optimise a calf's growth and development in the first few months of life, particularly in heifer calves, to boost lifetime potential and protect future profits.
This requires a particular focus on rumen development. At birth, the calf's digestive system contains all four chambers but it's undeveloped, with the abomasum the only active compartment. The rumen, reticulum and omasum are inactive, and require nutritional input to develop in order to establish a rumen microbial population and increase rumen volume.
If we don't put an emphasis on correctly developing the rumen, this will have a knock-on effect throughout the animal's productive life, by reducing growth rates, increasing number of days to service and lowering milk yield potential.
Feeding a high-quality starter feed helps to stimulate rumen development and rumen microbial proliferation.
A calf starter feed should be introduced from three days of age to accompany water and milk replacer. But it's important to note the nutritional content.
The starter feed should be palatable, highly digestible, provide optimum levels of starch and natural sugars, along with high levels of undegradable protein. Other key components to look out for include essential minerals and vitamins along with a rumen specific live yeast.
On-farm research has also supported the inclusion of nutritionally improved straw (NIS).
Start 'n' Wean calf starter feed contains the unique inclusion of NIS, which supports rumen development to boost feed conversion efficiency.
Fed alongside a high-quality calf milk replacer, Start 'n' Wean regularly delivers calf DLWG ranging from 0.75kg to in excess of 1kg.
Good levels of bypass protein are also provided from the inclusion of Hipro Soya to further aid rumen development, alongside natural sugars to help grow a healthy bacteria population in the rumen.
Start 'n' Wean also contains a bespoke health package, WynnGuard, which contains a high level of Mannan Oligosaccharide and essential vitamins and minerals to support a healthy digestive system, and overall calf health status.
A combination of probiotics and prebiotics has also been chosen to optimise rumen development as well as help protect the lower gut. The probiotic yeasts are selected to accelerate rumen development through faster colonisation of beneficial microflora. These, together with a rumen specific live yeast, support DLWG and feed conversion efficiency.
It's important producers invest in the early stages of a heifer calf's life, providing quality nutrition to ensure a smoother, safer transition to solid feed, which in turn will lead to quality production throughout her time in the herd.
Eimear Diamond is Wynnstay calf and youngstock manager.
