When to start creep

When do you all start creep and what do you prefer to begin with???

Thanks,

Cowman

We started our January calves on creep last month, and we feed Umbarger's Creep and Umbager's Breeder/Grower 1/2 and 1/2.

My opinion,asap. Take notice of how a baby calf is like a young child, they are curious @ first. We put out feed in pans right away. Any feed that is left the next day we feed to the cows. We have a calf that I saw eating yesterday that was 14 days old, not much, but a mouthful or 2. When they get 2/3 months old they seem to get more nervous and skeptical about going through or into tight areas. If you get them started eating young, you can always take it back away from them then start them back up later. They won't forget you or the feed.

We put the creep feeder out as soon as we start calving. I have one heifer that is amonth old and eats with her mother when we grain the cows. SHe is eating non stop. We have had better luck when we wean them by starting creep as soon as possible. We also use a grower ration. We have ours mixed at elevator. Use to feed umbargers though.

I just kind of watch when they start grazing along with the cows - if they eat much forage they can eat feed.

If you want to sell show calves or bulls, you want to have it out there as soon as they will eat it.  I usually try to have it out by 1 month old.  I also like to early wean (120-160 days old) on top of it since they are usually going well on feed anyway.  No need to feed a calf through a cow.  We use a Martindale Bull and Heifer Developer mix for our creep feed.  It is a 14% textured feed that we feed after weaning too.  The calves take weaning very well since there is no change in feed. 

Do you all feel that by starting the creep early you eliminate the founder issue? We haven't creeped in years but used to start 45 days before weaning and could lose a calf to founder or a cow if they busted in.

  Braunvieh, I think that if you are having some issues with your calves overloading on your creep feed, it is more of a formulation issue. We are careful not to have the ration too hot to begin with, ie. bulk it up or make sure that it is not too hot with starches. I would suggest that you talk to a nutritionist or feed rep to make sure that this won't happen to you. Even if you are mixing your own, I think it sounds like you'll need to rethink the ration. We start out feeding calves by hand in pans on the ground in an area that the cows can't get to, then progress to a creep feeder feeding by bucket fulls, then onto bulk truck fills @ full feed levels. My experience has been that if I start them very early, that I can always get them to come back to the feeder as I wish later. Different parts of the country will be handled differently according to cow #s & stocking rates. We are lucky here in Iowa that we can run a pair/2acres which keeps them close to home where we can see them all every day.