Sam's World is Cold
As I walked out to my truck this morning I saw two things:
1. Ice on the windshield
2. Frost on the lower part of my lawn
It is NOT summer.
When we need to wear an extra layer of clothing in the morning when feeding calves it is time to be feeding more milk to our young preweaned calves. Of course, if we have heated housing what happens outdoors does not really matter.
On the other hand, if we have cold housing we need to pay attention to the nutrient needs of our babies. Remember that when the environmental temperature falls below about 60 degrees (16C) young milk-fed calves start burning energy to maintain their core body temperature.
The idea is to feed enough to meet not only the maintenance needs of the calf but also to support growth as well. For ideas about the amount of growth likely to match different feeding rates at 60F, 40F and 20F click HERE.
If you prefer to see how nutrients are divided between maintenance and growth this graph may help you see the relationship: Graph
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