Eclipse Feeds

Calf Rearing System

Eclipse Calfage - The complete forage, concentrate and mineral provider for calves from 1 week to 20 weeks of age.

Your young stock of today is your future herd:

• Calves need to maximise their growth rates in order to achieve lifetime performance targets
• The feed conversion efficiency achieved in the first 6 weeks of life is the best over their whole lifetime. (Ref 1: Economics of heifer rearing)
• Calf rearing influences the long term performance of the mature animal.

Feed Colostrum

In the first 6 hours of life calves require 3 litres of colostrum

• This can be achieved by 20 minutes of continuous sucking
• Colostrum is of most benefit to the calf in the first 24 hours
• It becomes less valuable to the calf in the following 72 hours

Lying Area

• Cosy, draught free
• Clean
• Well ventilated
• Eliminate draughts and areas of stagnant air

Feeding – Milk or Milk replacer

• Mixing rate should be constant
• Feeding times should be regular
• Feed volumes should be built up to 2.5 litres twice a day over 10 days
• Feed milk at body temperature
• Have access to adequate clean water
• Use a multiple teat feeder instead of buckets as sucking on the teat is better for calves, it is more natural and leaves less scours and sickness

Introducing fibre and concentrate to young calves

• Calfage is the ideal solution
• Introduce from 7 to 10 days
• Allow calves free access
• The more solid feed a calf is eating at weaning the easier and less stressful weaning will be

At what age should a calf be weaned?

• Calves on Calfage will have conditioned the gut and digestive system to take over nutrient supply from milk
• At approx. 8 weeks of age calves should be consuming 1.5 kgs of Calfage and then can be weaned off of milk onto Calfage only
• Depending on size and appetite some calves can be weaned onto Calfage at 6 weeks
• For this to happen successfully it is important that consumption is at 1.5kgs/head/day at weaning
• Wean over a 2 week period as it leads to less stress during the weaning process.
• It is recommended to feed a balanced ration at grass with adequate vitamins and mineral content.

What is Eclipse Calfage?

• Eclipse Calfage First Feed is a Total Mixed Ration (TMR) which has been developed to set up calves quickly from as early as 5 to 7 days old producing a strong calf with a strong rumen
• The rumen is the first compartment of the stomach of a cow is not developed in a new born calf
• In a well developed rumen food is collected and returned to the mouth as cud for chewing

Why is Calfage so successful?

• Calfage encourages early development of the calf’s rumen
• It is the ideal pH to encourage rumen microbial growth
• It is a highly digestible fibre which is exceptionally palatable and this encourages intakes
• This mix of fibre and cereal grains results in well developed rumen papillae to absorb nutrients into a well developed blood system to be transported away for growth of tissue muscle and bone.
• Calves on Calfage before weaning will have larger rumens with well developed papillae very effective at absorbing VFAs from the rumen
• These calves can be weaned off of expensive milk diets onto ad-lib Calfage diet with little or no check in growth rates for the next 6 to 10 weeks
• Calves can be feed Calfage ad-lib in indoor pens or outside in covered creep feeding areas

Benefits

• On a Calfage complete diet calves should suffer little stress, no loss of condition and hence a good healthy performance
• Ensure Calfage is available ad-lib from here on
• Ensure free access to water
• These calves can be weaned off of expensive milk diets onto ad-lib Calfage diet with little or no check in growth rates ( Ref 2: Post Weaning Growth Check) for the next 6 to 10 weeks
• Calfage is better than hay and straw fed with concentrates as the long strands of hay and straw cause calves to have hay bellies which decrease intake of feed and inhibit the development of the rumen at this important phase.

Improved Growth weights

• A healthy start in the calf’s life results in better weight and growth rates, meaning that animals enter the milking herd earlier
• Leading to a reduction in heifer calving ages
• It has been proven in studies that heifers that grow faster in the first 65 days of their cycle calve earlier, have higher 1st lactation milk yields, last for more lactation (much more desirable cow) and have less incidence of disease. (Mastitis etc.)

Time Management

• Eclipse Calfge is a TMR (Total mixed ration)
• Is less labour intensive as all feed is given together
• Calfage is available ad-lib so calves are less likely to be hungry
• A hungry calf leads to a stressed animal and reduced thrive

Conclusion

• Calfage rearing system achieves very high cost effective growth rates, and allows for early weaning from milk
• Calfage is a unique, alkaline, palatable calf feed

Ref. 1 - Economics of Calf Rearing

Zone	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Age Range, days	1-65	66-110	111-158	159-229	230-307	308-336	337-415	416-483	484-546	547-639	640-660
Target BW, kg	80	125	175	250	325	350	390	450	510	590	610
Feed Efficiency, %	56.0	26.0	25.7	17.9	12.0	10.2	9.4	9.2	8.9	8.3	7.3
Minimum Days	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Maximum Days	60	60	80	80	80	80	80	80	80	80	80

^{*Bach et al 2008}

• As seen from the above chart, calves have a much increased energy efficiency early in life
• In the first 65 days of a calf's life, there is a feed conversion efficiency of 56% i.e. For every 100g of feed eaten there is a 56g increase in Body Weight (BW)
• This decreased dramatically in the next 6 weeks to 26%.
• As seen in zone 3, this is almost halved to 25.7
• Economics need to be balanced with biology and the entire growing phase needs to be considered.
• A good calf rearing program is the best way to ensure a good return for your investment.

Ref 2 - Post Weaning Growth Check

A calf with an underdeveloped rumen shows up at the weaning stage when the calf typically shows lack of thrive and in some cases become unhealthy due to its inability to digest grains and forages. The calf’s body is not ready to digest and absorb adequate nutrients and energy from the forage consumed and growth rates suffer. This leads to a post weaning growth check. Ensuring optimal rumen development in this earliest phase of a calf’s life is the essential physiological factor in the avoidance of post-weaning check and is something all calf rearers should be conscious of.

Post weaning growth check is influenced by various factors including stress of weaning, depressed appetite due to inadequate rumen development and increased disease incidence (pneumonia).

It makes sound economic sense to have fully utilised this important preweaning phase to adequately develop the epithelial and muscular layers of the calves rumen for this important post weaning phase.