Our Veal Industry Roots Set Quality Standards
Nourishing young animals is foundational to Strauss Feeds, and in our company’s beginnings, many of those animals were veal calves.
Our sister company, Strauss Veal Feeds, originated more than 40 years ago. When our company expanded into the calf milk replacer business a few years later, we never strayed from the fundamentals of excellent nutrition and high-quality ingredients that are requisite to successfully raising veal calves.
The liquid ration is critical in veal nutrition because it makes up the majority of the total diet. There’s no room for missteps, quality variation, or nutritional inconsistencies that might be compensated for with grain or forage in a traditional dairy calf’s diet.
Also, when veal calves approach market weight, they are placed on a very rich liquid ration. It is made up of about 7 pounds of milk replacer powder per day in a solution that is 18-20% solids, similar to a milkshake. At this stage, they become very fussy, and will only accept the ration if it is made with the highest-quality ingredients. I have literally seen veal calves draw in a mouthful of milk and spray it back out like an elephant, because they detected a change in the flavor. Tough customers, to be sure!
We only purchase ingredients from approved suppliers, and work carefully with them to ensure consistency of ingredients that leads to a consistent, high-quality infant formula for your animals.
We’ve built upon our roots in the veal industry to provide the animal feed industry with a commitment to the same level of quality and consistency in all of our infant animal milk replacer products. We do that with:
High Quality Ingredients
We only utilize the highest-quality dairy ingredients in all of our milk replacers. All of the dairy proteins we utilize meet strict quality standards. The same is true for all of the edible fats and oils we use in our infant animal formulations. In addition to providing optimal nutrition, utilizing superior-quality ingredients ensures highly soluble and dispersible components in the formulated powder.
2. Consistent Nutritional Analysis
All incoming ingredients are evaluated in our state-of-the-art, in-house lab for factors including protein content, mineral profiles, and fat content; along with bacteria and acidity levels. Further qualitative tests are performed to ensure consistent solubility, mixing, and scorched-particle content. This information allows us to make necessary adjustments in our manufacturing process to ensure that every finished batch of milk replacer contains the specified levels of micronutrients, protein and fat. Additional laboratory evaluations are made post-manufacturing to ensure that same consistency from batch to batch and from bag to bag. Hear from our lab coordinator about how we test our ingredients.
3. Struct Quality Standards
We only purchase ingredients from approved suppliers, and work carefully with them to ensure consistency of ingredients that leads to a consistent, high-quality infant formula for your animals. Ingredients with high bacteria counts, for example, could lead to diarrhea problems. A scorched batch of spray-dried whey protein powder could interfere with protein digestibility and also produce off flavors. Our suppliers all know we are not afraid to refuse a batch of ingredients that does not meet our quality standards.
Our commitment to consistent quality translates into the consistent liquid ration your infant animals crave, and the consistent and efficient feed conversion you desire for economic and production success. Whether we’re feeding veal calves or your infant animals, our dedication to creating a superior product remains the same.
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In this quick video, MacDonald compares a sample of traditional, instantized milk replacer blend, versus the Autofeeder Blend.