Creep feeding beef calves is a topic often addressed by Dan Faulkner, Extension Specialist in the Beef Department of Animal Science at the University of Illinois.
Faulkner said the expectation is that in the future producers will be trying to produce an animal for a more specific market, such as organic, all-natural, etc., but that creep feeding can benefit producers no matter the niche, when developed appropriately.
He discussed two types of development with your calves, precision production through extensive production and intensive production. Extensive production involves cattle that will be harvested at greater than 16 months old. “To begin, you must have cheap forage. One way to achieve this is to get your herd to calve when having high forage. I’ve had producers say they saved $150 per cow in feeding costs when they moved to all fall calving.” This must be balanced with the challenge of not having all calves bunched up at one time for marketing reasons. This type of commodity beef, Faulkner said, is proven by research that says creep feeding on supplemental grain is a benefit to get additional weight on calves.
Intensive production is applied to calves that are to be marketed at ages younger than 16 months old. This type of calf will be higher quality and more tender (Faulkner said data suggests that calves harvested between 12 and 18 months of age are 80 percent more tender).
Creep Feeding
Faulkner presented a study that showed a comparison between a group of calves that was not creep fed, a group that was fed soyhulls and a group that was fed corn. In one treatment, a group that was fed soyhulls and corn gained between .7 and .9 lbs/day more than the group that was not creep fed. Creep feeding was proven again when documented as a positive weight increase between the control, of no creep, and the soyhulls and corn creep treatments. A final carcass weight of a calf fed corn in one trial was 678 lbs., 664 lbs. when fed on soyhulls and 555 lbs. on no creep.
“There is continually proven a dramatic increase in the quality of cows when evaluating finishing performance in creep feeding,” Faulkner said. And the comparison of corn versus soyhulls in creep was slightly in favor of corn in terms of quality grade and carcass weight, but only slightly.
Faulkner said it is safe to assume that a producer can produce higher quality calves with creep feeding, but marbling genetics will also be an important factor, and breeds used in crossbreeding are also important.
Research has shown that with high starch and protein levels producers can expect about one unit of marbling per day. Marbling and more weight both add to more profit and better marketing advantages in the end.
When developing a diet for the calves, Faulkner stressed a planned diet for your calves. “It doesn’t matter what is fed to your calves on the back end, but the front end is huge,” he said, noting, “Corn works really well, something with a 16 percent protein and that contains an ionophore.” Ionophores are feed additives used in cattle to increase feed efficiency and rate of gain.
When marketing your calves, Faulkner said it is the burden of the producer to let the feedlots know the type of creep system your calves have been developed on, to take full advantage of the price increase this can promote.
Faulkner said it is imperative that producers find a market that pays for quality. “Local markets and custom feedlots can often get you the most for your efforts," he said.
Creep feeding with high concentrate diets can improve carcass quality. Creep feeding offers advantages in the feedlot phase, but has less advantages for the cow/calf phase, Faulkner concluded.
