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Milk replacer storage

F

Fred Werring

Well-known Member
Bought a 25lb. bag of milk replacer yesterday. Milk based.

Only used a little, want to store the rest. Stuff is $60 a bag this year.

Got it packed in vacuum bags, thinking I should put it in the freezer. But you guys think it'll keep on the shelf since it's vacuum packed?

Have no idea when it'll be used. Hopefully never. But if you've got cows....seems like I wind up with a bottle calf every third year or so.

Thanks

As an aside, found the calf Sunday morning. She had nursed and was 3 days old. Momma is 7 years old, not her first rodeo. We'd had some weather for a couple days. Too weak to get up. Mouth was cold. Tubed her with electrolytes in the morning, and a quart of replacer in the afternoon. Covered with a blanket in a warm spot. About all I could do.

I like calving season, except for this part.
 
I do not have access to a vacuum sealer, so I put extra milk replacer powder into ice cream pails and store them in the freezer.

Lon
 
It's not even the money it would be worth that bothers me..it's the calf not making it. It takes me a couple days to get over it usually. It sucks.
 
Not a big time cattle farmer, 44 brood cows.

I've had enough livestock to know that sometimes, despite your best efforts, they die.

Still sucks though.
 
As long as it is dry in a snap top pail, it should keep for months. Even in the freezer I dont know if it would keep more than a year. Darn calves can break your heart. We have been bottle feeding calves in our dairy for over 40 years, and it still gets to you when you loose one. I dont know if I have ever save a calf once its mouth had gotten cold, their body temperature has dropped too far. I like calves born on grass, with warm temperatures and sunshine.
 
Keep it in a dry bug-less place for the rest of the duration of THIS calving season, (I put stuff in barrels with lids).

If you end up not needing any more of it for the rest of this season, then sell or give the remaining to someone else that you know has bucket calves. I wouldn't mess with year old milk replacer. Been froze, or not.

I presume you know about cholostareme??? It's VERY important that a calf gets that within hours of being born. It gets this from the cow of course, (IF) it sucks the cow. A calf that never got up after being born, obviously never sucked the cow. And that is one thing you got to be be careful about. You can buy it at your vet and mix it and feed it to the calf yourself. But, skipping that part, is a big NO NO, if calf never sucked the first milk from the cow.
 
Warmer weather and sunshine.

That's the biggest reason I pushed my beginning calving date back to last week or so of March. Lost too many calves to wet/mud/cold trying to calve Jan/Feb. Lose a couple months worth of weight, but more live calves. A good trade-off.

But this year, we're about a month behind weather wise.

Been feeding hay without bale rings so I don't get that mud ring that calves get stuck in, and they've got a cedar patch for a windbreak.

Gotta have faith....it WILL warm up eventually
 
We keep ours in plastic pail with lid and use the next year. Sometimes even 2 year old and never a problem


Just leave it sitting in a dry area in the shop.
 
I liked calving in Jan/Feb temperature was more stable with less moisture problems. Unlike later in spring. Watch them and put inside for the calving keep cow and calf in for a day or 2. Then let cow out and kept calf in. Let cow in to feed calf and kick back out had to feed cows anyway so no big deal. With a bit of ground feed for the cow she would come right in. tied calves to a wall in one of the alleys in the old freestall barn Let calf loose to suck till done. Tie back up and run cow out.
 
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