Creep feeding can be a very useful tool for producers raising young calves. Using this tool can both improve your overall bottom line as well as your profitability. Not to mention also helping calves in being more productive.
What this tool is able to do is add a few more pounds on your calves which can translate to more dollars for you when it comes to sale time. Also, it has been shown to make weaning a little bit less stressful for them. It can almost seem like creep feeding is a no-brainer but unfortunately, like with everything else with ranching, it is not always that simple.
Like with everything there are pros and cons to using it. It is up to each producer individually to decide if it is something that will work for them or not. Not only must you look if it will work from a production standpoint but you must also see if it will make sense financially. Here are some things to consider:
What is creep feeding?
To put it simply creep feeding is supplying a supplement for just your calves to eat. This can be provided in either a pellet form or by way of a textured feed. Just as long as it is something that they, and only they, will eat.
In order for it to be available to only calves, it has to be put in a feeder that is penned off with openings small enough only they can get through. This will make sure that your cows can not get in.
When it comes to creep feed there are two types that they can come in:
- Energy: this is predominately used when your forage quality is low and you need a substitution. The feed conversion of this type can vary greatly ranging anywhere from 15:1 to 6:1.
- Protein: this type is generally used for supplementation rather than substitution. What this means is when your forage quality is good but you are looking to provide a little something more. The high protein creep will have a better feed conversion rate, somewhere around 4:1. One drawback is they will consume less of this which means they will have less total gain.
When to use creep feeding
There are many factors to consider when looking at creep feeding. 4 factors that you should look at are:
- Forage quality: if it is lush and green then creep feeding may not be the best option for you. As long as the Crude Protein provided is between 8% to 10% then the forage should provide enough nutrients for your calf.
- Stage of lactation: If your cows are providing enough milk then they will be able to provide enough to meet the calf’s protein and energy needs. If your animals are more in the later stages where their milk amount declines then you may need to consider creep feeding.
- Condition of the cow: creep feeding may be useful if you have young, and/or thin cows. This will take some of the nutritional demand off of them and allow them to put some weight back on them.
- Cost of gain: if it is not profitable for you to do it then creep feeding is not an option you should go with. It makes no sense to add on the extra expense if you won’t be able to at least cover that cost. Here is where you figure out if the extra weight that will be put on is more than the cost of the feed.
Figuring the cost of gain
It is useless for you to spend more than what the market price for that calf will be. The point of any business is for you to be in a sustainable net profit scenario. Sometimes that will bit extra is not worth it in the end.
Many producers think that the more weight those calves have the better profit, But that is not always the case in the real world. Sometimes that extra weight does not fully pay off. It depends entirely on what the market says a calf like that will be worth.
The market has a certain number in regards to the weight that it likes for calves to be in. There is generally a discount for a calf that weighs more than a certain amount. It all just depends on what the buyers are looking for and what they are willing to pay. Individually these discounts may not seem like much but the more you are trying to sell the more that they can add up.
Example:
I suppose I should go ahead and put out a disclaimer that the numbers I am about to use are not set in stone. These are just some examples that I have come up with to provide a point here.
Let us say that you are looking to sell some calves that are in 2 different groups you are thinking of creep feeding. In one group you decide not to and they come out to be in the 550lbs area. The second group you do creep feed to the tune of putting on an extra 60lbs to bring them up to the 610lbs region.
The 550lbs steer may be worth $1.10 per pound and the creep fed one could be with $1.05. Now initially it may seem to not be worth it but let’s finish the math up first. The 550lbs one would be worth $605 (550x $1.10/pound) and the creep fed ones would generate $641 (619x $1.05). The additional 60 pounds of the gain would make an additional $36 or $0.60 per pound of gain. This would mean that whatever creep feed that you used could not cost more than $0.60 to add 1 pound of gain.
Calculating feed cost
Now that we have the number of what that calf will bring in we can figure out our feed costs.
In this example, we will be using a feed conversion of 6lbs of feed per 1lbs of gain. (again, not set in stone just what I am using to make a point). If we have a feed price of $120 per ton that would equal $0.36 per pound of added gain. So by this figure, it would be profitable to creep feed.
Deciding if it is worth it
Once you have done the math you can then make an informed decision. Course I do caution there is one other expense that you should look at.
Another factor you should consider is the labor costs associated with creep feeding. This can be either any help that you have working for you or just yourself. If it is just you still consider labor costs because you do not want to be working for free do you?
Also if you do not already have the equipment you will need to factor in the price of that into your costs. A creep feeder can cost in the $800 to $3,000 range.
If you are looking for more pros and cons with creep feeding I discuss that more in a previous post titled “The Pros and Cons of Creep Feeding”.
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln has a paper that goes into more detail about creep feeding and you can find it by clicking here.
Now creep feeding as I have discussed earlier can be a valuable tool to increase the profitability of your current calf crop. Ultimately it is up to the individual producer to weigh the advantages and disadvantages to determine if it is right for their operation.
