Advantage Feeders Creep Feeding Stage 2

A couple of months ago I sent out an email about how creep feeding early can make you more $$$. If you didn’t get it or need a refresher you can read about that on our blog www.huberequipment.com. I call that stage 1 in creep feeding - “Getting the calves started on creep feed for early rumen development.”

Today I want to talk about what I call stage 2 Creep Feeding - “ Teaching the calves to eat from the lick area behind the trough.” The Advantage Feeders have a lower adjuster and an upper adjuster. These adjusters not only allow you to control feed, which is something we will talk more about in stage 3, but also prevent waste and spoilage. At this stage we usually leave both the upper and lower adjuster at a more open setting like maybe as much as a 4 and a 5 for starters. In stage 1 they were eating feed directly in the trough area just trying to get them all going on grain at a young age. Now that they have developed a taste for the grain we want to focus on avoiding waste and working towards more efficiency. I am a bit late in getting this email sent out as personally we have already moved to stage 2 with our own calves a few weeks ago.

Let’s start by looking at some of the benefits of the calves using the lick area behind the trough.

1. The birds don't find the feed as easily here thus helping you avoid waste and contamination from diseases birds might be carrying. This can also be true for other wildlife, etc. that might find it more difficult to get to the feed.

2. Keeping the feed in the lick area behind the trough instead of having a trough full of feed helps keep the grain fresh and minimize the grain spills on the ground as the trough is there to catch the overflow. If too much grain is getting into the trough area I would begin tightening up the settings at this stage just to keep the feed in the lick area.

3. There is less spoilage from rain. The rain guard as well as the slant of the feeders help prevent moisture in this area keeping feed more palatable than a wet trough full of feed. Not only is the lick area more protected but it also has less feed in it to get wet if you get a strong sideways rain. The actual trough area has drain holes for the rain.

4. Keeping the feed in the lick area behind the trough versus in a trough full of feed makes it a bit harder for the calves to be as picky with the feed they eat, especially if you add in the optional adjuster guards.

I recently had a call from a customer who loved the Advantage Feeders for a lot of the before mentioned reasons and was recommending them to others. At the Ag in Motion in July we chatted with them and one of the new customers they brought in. We were happy to hear that after seeing these types of benefits for himself with the one feeder he had purchased he was motivated to continue making the switch over to the Advantage Feeders in his operation.

Did you know?? Getting some of those benefits might be more affordable than you think!

We have also had quite a few people mention that Advantage Feeders are less expensive than competitors or than they expect them to be. So if you are in the market for a creep feeder and the possibility of an extra $100+ profit per calf sounds appealing.. Contact Myrna or check out www.advantagaefeeders.com or www.huberequipment.com for more information, pricing and pictures to better help you understand the lick area concept. These feeders are galvanized (stainless steel in the trough area) and come with a 2 year warranty.

In a future email I plan to share some of the many benefits that come from using the control options of the Advantage Feeders. Here are a number of them!

1. Avoiding dockage at the auction.

2. Being able to feed hotter feeds such as barley.

3. Helping to extend pasture.

4. Taking pressure off cows.

5. Safely feeding replacements.

6. More gain with less grain.

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