Creep Feeding: Let’s Run the Numbers!
Jason Warner, cow-calf specialist
Providing supplemental creep feed is often done in response to drought or when grass quality starts to decline during late-summer and early-fall. Creep feeding can be an effective strategy for the cow-calf enterprise to increase calf weight gain while calves are still nursing their dams. While certainly helpful in increasing calf performance, creep feeding is also a management practice in which the broader impacts, from both a production and financial aspect to the cow-calf system are often easily overlooked.
If creep feeding is commonly part of your management program, it is important to establish your objectives for doing so and have a clear picture of the economics. Here we will review a few key aspects to keep in mind when making creep feeding decisions this fall as well as do some “cowboy math” using current calf and feed prices.
Creep Feed Can Be In Many Forms
While we most commonly think of creep feed as being a commercial pelleted or texturized feed, those are certainly not the only forms in which it can be provided. By definition, creep feed refers to any source of supplemental nutrients offered to calves in addition to the milk they receive from the dam and their direct forage intake. It can be provided as a grain or commodity blend that is mixed directly on the farm or ranch using a grinder mixer. If cows and calves are managed in a drylot or confinement situation, creep feed can consist of additional feed delivered in a section of the bunk or in an area accessible only to calves. Creep grazing is an effective means of providing additional nutrition through forage quality by allowing calves to graze a forage source that cows cannot. Allowing calves to walk under a single strand of electric fence and graze forages such as small cereal grains or summer annuals while cows are maintained in an adjacent pasture or feeding area can be a practical strategy.
A Tool for Aiding in Weaning
Despite our best efforts as managers and caretakers to minimize animal stress, the simple act of weaning creates many stressors on calves. When we abruptly separate a calf from its dam, relocate it to a new environment, and ask it to eat something it’s not accustomed to, we ultimately create a very stressful situation. Introducing calves to creep feed the last 30-45 days prior to weaning to allow them to become familiar with the feed and build intake, and then moving the feeders into pens and providing creep feed and free choice hay upon weaning is a sound practice. This method helps minimize stress by allowing for dietary consistency during a time when calves are being exposed to new pen mates and water sources.
Not A Band-Aid for Drought
Research data suggest that creep feeding does not take lactation pressure off the cow by substituting milk for creep intake. Rather, the calf goes back and nurses just as much as a non-creep fed calf. Therefore, early-weaning, as opposed to creep feeding, in response to drought is one of the most effective ways to preserve forage because 1) forage intake by the cow is decreased when she is nonlactating and 2) forage intake by the calf is removed. Equally important, early-weaning allows for cow body condition and weight to be added more gradually and cost effectively prior to the next calving season. Studies evaluating cow and calf forage intake generally indicate that for every 2.5 days the calf is weaned allows enough forage savings for 1 more day of grazing for a nonlactating cow.
Know Your Numbers
Years when calf prices are high relative to feed prices are when creep feeding is typically most feasible. For any management decision, we need a clear understanding of the costs and returns to determine whether it pays to creep feed. A user friendly creep feeding calculator tool is available on the KSUBeef.org website.
https://www.asi.k-state.edu/extension/beef/files/Creep%20Feeding%20Calculations.xlsx
Consider the following assumptions from a recent, real-world scenario:
Base creep feed price = $350/ton + $20/ton for delivery
Expected performance of calves over non-creep fed calves = 0.45 lb/day
Length of the feeding period = 75 days
Expected feed conversion (F:G) = 8:1
Expected calf weight and price without creep feeding = 525 lb @ $4.15/lb
Expected calf weight and price with creep feeding = 559 lb @ $3.95/lb
Value of the Added Weight Gain = $0.84/lb
Cost of the Added Weight Gain = $1.48/lb
Based on the expected conversion and length of the feeding period, the total feed intake per calf would be 270 pounds with a feed cost of $49.95. Using the assumed calf prices, the additional calf value after creep feeding would be $29.31 per calf. These values equate to a cost of additional gain of $1.48/lb and a value of additional gain of $0.84/lb. Because the value of the additional gain is less than the cost of gain, the return to creep feeding in this scenario would be negative at -$21.64 per calf. This does not account for the costs of the feeders themselves or for the costs of either picking them up or having them delivered to the pastures.
It is important to remember that among calves of similar genetics and management, calves that are creep fed will nearly always be heavier at weaning than their non-creep fed contemporaries. This is simply due to increased energy and protein intake. However, data suggest that this advantage is not always maintained post-weaning due to compensatory gain by non-creep fed calves. Thus, the decision to creep feed pre-weaning also needs to be made in the context of how the calves will be managed post-weaning if you retain and grow your calves after that point. Keep in mind calves that are fleshy due to creep feeding are typically discounted at marketing, and fertility can be impacted in both heifers and bulls that are overly conditioned early in their development. Accurate estimates of both the cost and value of additional gain are needed to determine the economic feasibility of creep feeding for your operation.