I agree with the above posts, but let me throw in a little twist here.
Some calves are given x number of minutes to clean up their feed before the owner goes off to school, work, a hot date, the wash rack, etc.
Stop and think how a normal bovine eats. A cow on grass or a feeder on a steer stuffer doesn't eat a specific amount of feed in x number of minutes. They eat, lie down and chew the old cud, get back up and then start the process all over again.....multiple times a day. The animal eating as much as it wants, when it wants is not the animal we have going off feed or bloating. I've just saved you a lot of money buying Probios and more expensive feeds with voo doo ingredients!!!!
Cats are nibblers, dogs eat one or two meals a day. I just turned a bovine into a feline!
I have never used a formula for feeding, such as feeding 2% of the calf's weight. If you put feed out in the morning and go back in the evening and there is one handfull of feed left you have a happy gastrointestinal tract and a calf that is gaining weight the way it should. That's assuming all other things such as genetics, feed quality, housing, herd health are equal.
Now I did not address the issue of having one calf peak on one day, but please think about what I have said.
I feed my show animals on the above plan until a couple weeks before a show and then I work them gradually into the 'you are only going to be able to eat all you want in only a few minutes and get over it' routine. Actually, once the calves are weaned and gotten onto the above routine, I have to cut them back because they are gaining too many pounds per day. I have never kept a bull or heifer on full feed over 7 or 8 months of age; it's too hard on those joints and other body parts. Fat cattle do stay on the above plan and if I have a cow/bull combinaton that can't produce a calf hanging in the locker in 13 1/2 months or less, my Dad tought me to sell the cow and shoot the bull.
I got awfully wordy to just say....think how a normal bovine eats.
The sun is shining in Ohio. Glory be!
Malinda