I've often heard that calves don’t perform too well on milk powder compared to full milk, and I just don't agree with it.

The one difference in milk powder versus full milk is consistency. Cows are much more capable of producing a consistent product than farmers can using manufactured powder.

How do we ensure we maximise growth rates from calves fed powder milk?

Example

In one case two farmers who were disappointed with performance on powder reckoned they were feeding around 700g powder/calf/day. When we weighed out the powder they were using, both farmers were actually feeding less than 500g/calf, hence the compromised performance.

Cathal McAleer is a consultant working with individual farmers and facilitating discussion groups throughout Ireland.