The key to getting calves to eat from a creep feeder is to have a highly palatable ration that is dust free. To ensure consumption of all the ingredients in the creep feed, make sure all the ingredients are of similar particle size. Some of the commercial creep feeds are pelleted, so you do not have to concern yourself about similar particle size. If you sell calves at weaning, creep feeding the calves may be an option. Make sure that the calves do not get too fleshy. If they do, buyers will bid a lower price for these calves. If you are going to retain the calves for some time after weaning, we would not recommend creep feeding the calves because you can pick up that gain after you wean the calves. Creep feeding for two to three weeks before weaning is a good management tool to "bunk break" the calves and get them eating. This will make it easier to wean the calves.
One of the drawbacks of creep feeding is that rations can be expensive, so you need to watch cost, and that conversion of feed to gain is not very good. This just adds to costs.
In drought situations, some producers will creep feed the calves to take some of the lactational pressure off the cow. Creep-fed calves will continue to nurse the dam, and sometimes they will nurse more often than calves not creep-fed. So in drought situations, it is probably more economical to wean the calf and feed it directly.
