SweetPro Cattle Video Testimonies

Bob Salmon trimmed his calf starting supplement day-cost from 80 cents/hd, to 20 cents/hd.

Stressed Calves Never Look Back, with SweetPro¨ Kaf Starter.

January/February 2001 • Bob Salmon of Appleton City, Missouri knows what it takes to start and raise light calves. He's utilizing the basics, such as quality hay and grass, good stock, proper vaccination and now is adding SweetPro Kaf Starter!

Calves weighing from 350 to 450 pounds begin arriving on his ranch in the early Fall. Salmon strives to get his calves on pasture in two to ten days after arrival.

To accomplish this, Bob believes it's crucial to get the calves eating immediately after they come off the truck. On the first day, calves are given hay or are put in grass traps, if the grass is fresh, plus they get SweetPro's Kaf Starter. He stresses that part of the reason he can use this aggressive approach is because the calves go to the Kaf Starter tubs so quickly. "Calves will come off the truck and in minutes they'll be biting into the tub. And when they do that, you just don't have any health problems," Salmon said.

Use of SweetPro's Kaf Starter has also unexpectedly resolved a reoccurring problem with Salmon's "long haul" calves. That problem was coccidiosis. "We got calves in this September when it was hot and a few of them showed symptoms of cocidiosis, but we didn't treat for it. They were on the Kaf Starter tubs, and it just seemed to knock it right in the head."

Salmon went on to note that he used to have to treat for coccidiosis when calves would first exhibit symptoms. Not anymore. After implementing Kaf Starter into his program two years ago, Mr. Salmon hasn't treated for coccidiosis since.

Of all the positive attributes of starting calves on SweetPro products, none has been more important to Salmon than the cost advantages over his previous method of using a commercial preconditioning pellet ration.

In the beginning, Salmon feeds the Kaf Starter until calves reach consumption of 1.5 lbs/hd/day. Then he switches them to Kaf Kandi and feeds that block at a rate of .75 to 1 lb/hd/day. If calves exceed 1.25 lbs, Salmon changes to the SweetPro 16 barrel.

In his original program, Salmon was feeding 8 lbs. of pellets/hd/day at a cost of 80 cents per head. That was done over a 30 day period. Now, using SweetPro's Kaf Starter and Kaf Kandi, Salmon trimmed his supplement cost to 15 to 20 cents/hd/day. Savings totaled an exceptional $18 to $20 per head for those first 30 days.

Salmon believes it's important for people interested in using Kaf Starter to not be concerned by the price per ton for the feed. It's more important to look at what the cost per head, per days is going to be.

"You can preach to anybody you want about the benefits of a product, but what it boils down to is price. Feeding Kaf Starter is the cheapest and most effective way that I have found in starting calves yet."

Bob Salmon is now a firm believer in the Kaf Starter. "The calves do use them. You do''t think they will, until you have the experience with it. All we feed now, to start calves, is good grass/hay and Kaf Starter - and the calves never look back."

For more information contact Bob Salmon's SweetPro dealer - Donnie Gast - at 417-667-6802.

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