Your Strauss Feeds Representative: At Your Service
When you run a dairy or calf operation, you’re like the engineer of a train that runs 24-7. Keeping that train on the tracks is not something you can do alone – it takes a dedicated crew, functional systems, and trusted advisors who support you from an outside vantage point. Your Strauss Feeds representative is one such advisor, who also can help enhance the work of your crew and influence the systems that keep your operation chugging along at a steady and profitable pace.
We do more than sell milk replacer. We partner with our customers to deliver both high-quality products and services that add value to those products and maximize their influence on calf performance. Among the assistance your Strauss Feeds representative can provide is:
(1) Water testing – The mineral balance in your farm’s water can affect both the palatability and solubility of calf milk replacer. It also can impact the efficacy of cleaning chemicals. And no matter how clean your equipment is, bacteria like E. coli in your water supply can lead to sick calves. We offer water testing services by personally collecting water samples and test for bacteria in our own in-house lab. We partner with Rock River Laboratories for mineral evaluation, and deliver results promptly so you can make modifications to your water system as needed.
Results from a water test done on a customer’s farm.
(2) Luminometer evaluations – Using ATP swabbing can test for invisible pathogens on equipment that might look clean, but could be a hindrance to calf health. This applies to any equipment that touches the milk replacer – tanks, mixing paddles, hoses, pumps, pails, bottles, nipples, whisks, etc. Every Strauss Feeds representative has the equipment and expertise to perform ATP audits. Workers who operate and clean feeding equipment often look forward to these periodic checks, as they provide feedback and reinforce consistent practices on the farm.
“Collectively, our Strauss Feeds team has a wealth of knowledge in a wide range of calf nutrition and rearing topics.”
(3) Formulation advice – What’s the best protein:fat ratio for your calves? What additives or supplements would help them perform better? Those answers will be very farm-specific. We can help evaluate your priorities and determine the best milk replacer formulation to achieve your goals.
(4) Milk-mixing evaluation – Whether you’re breaking in a new mixing tank or want to ensure the consistency of the product you’re mixing with existing equipment, we can assist. By calibrating tanks, checking scales, and evaluating water temperature and mix time, we can help build the correct protocols to ensure that every one of your calves receives the correct milk replacer formulation at every feeding.
(5) Milk solids testing – Product consistency can be evaluated post-mixing by measuring solids content with a Brix refractometer. We generally recommend a total solids level of 12.5%. Some farms may prefer to feed slightly higher or lower solids percentages, but what is most important is that the chosen solids level is fed consistently. Even a half-percent variation from a farm’s chosen level is a big deal, and can lead to digestive problems and/or underfed calves.
(6) Operational consulting – Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes and an outside perspective can identify areas for improvement. We enjoy the opportunity to walk around your facilities, look over your calves, and observe operator processes. Bedding, feed and water quality, and barn ventilation all influence calf health and performance, and may be improved through outside observations. There also may be ways that worker routines and methods can be improved to make the job easier and more efficient for them, and/or better for the calves.
(7) On-farm training – We enjoy building relationships with the people who care for calves every day, and helping them improve their skills sets. By teaching and empowering workers, we can multiply the effects of good practices that ultimately produce good calves. Our on-farm instruction can be customized to whatever process or management area you’d like to improve.
(8) Product delivery – Managing the logistics of getting the correct product to you when you need it should not create headaches on your part. We do our best to make sure your orders are delivered on time and in excellent condition. That may be improved with our involvement in streamlining ordering systems with your staff, as well as evaluating and customizing on-farm storage arrangements to ensure product quality and rotation.
We do our best to make sure your orders are delivered on time and in excellent condition.
Collectively, our Strauss Feeds team has a wealth of knowledge in a wide range of calf nutrition and rearing topics. If I don’t know an answer, I’m usually just a phone call away from someone on our team who does. You can locate the Strauss Feeds representative for your area here. Our goal for every customer is to honor the way they want to run their business, and our greatest satisfaction comes from watching them succeed and thrive.
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We do more than sell milk replacer. We partner with our customers to deliver both high-quality products and services that add value to those products and maximize their influence on calf performance.