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ND | Beef calves are getting a lot more milk than a hand fed dairy calf. The reason hay is not recommended until several weeks post weaning is that hay lowers the plane of nutrition the calf is receiving. The dairy calf only gets X pounds of milk/milk replacer so they have to make up the rest of their diet from grain or hay. Hay is filling and has less nutrition so it would seem logical that a calf fed any amount of hay would have a lower plane of nutrition than a calf fed nothing but milk and grain. I realize many feed hay to calves and things work out fine. However, the first 60 days are most critical to the development of the calf and I for one want to give them the best chance to succeed. | |
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Dairy calf steers
