:( need help with this math

chicks & ducks

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:rolleyes:

Ok, I've tried to get my head around this but gallons ounces pints and quarts blah blah can't do it!

Here's the deal.
Bought 50lb bag of milk replacer (land o lakes)
says to put 20oz powder in bottle and then add water to make up to 3.5 quarts of milk (7 pints)
feed immediately
(first of all I only feed 4 pints(1 bottle) at a time 4 pints in morning, 4 mid day and 2 in evening as it's cold(to help lil guy get through night....thinking about this I will probably switch the half feed to 'lunch' cause he goes longer at night between feeds...BUT-not the point of this thread. Point I'm making here is I do 10 pints of milk a day.

I can not, for the life of me(or the cow!) figure out how much I am paying per day to feed this cow.
We asked the neighbor up the road about buying his 'fresh' milk to feed our calves and he said he feeds his calfs starter. He says he needs to sell his milk at $1.52 to break even. He says it's CHEAPER to feed replacer.

Now I really can't work this out! 1.52 per gallon, I'd feed 1.25 gallons per day. I make it $1.90 a day BUT is this cheaper or more expensive than the replacer I'm buying. Maybe he's buying cheaper stuff( I could have got $60 bags, but didn't want to skimp on nutrition, this one is 26/20)

I really need the idiots guide here guys, I just can't do the 'brain' thing today! ugh.
 

jhm47

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Here's what we used to do: We would mix 8 ounces of powder in 2 quarts of warm water and feed that twice a day (morning and evening). We did this winter and summer, and I'd bet that our winters are colder than yours (-20) is common and -30 happens all too often. If you do this, you should get 100 feedings out of a bag of replacer. Your 50 lb bag has 800 ounces of powder. This means that you should get 100 feedings out of it. $80 divided by 100 feedings = $.80 per feeding, or $1.60 per day per calf. I doubt that the farmer would want to sell milk at breakeven. He should at least make a 50 cent profit, so that comes out to $2.02 / gallon. If he'll sell it to you at breakeven, I'd go with the whole milk. No mixing, no mess, and a natural product that is less likely to scour the calf. Just make sure he isn't selling you watered down milk, or milk of poor quality. FYI: Don't feed the extra 2 pints. Overfeeding is a major cause of scours. Morning and night - 2 qts each time is plenty.
 

a.james.wolf

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50(lb) X 16 = 800 oz of powder
Cost $0.10 per oz of powder ($80 / 800)
$2.00 worth of powder (20 x $0.10) makes 7 pints
$2 / 7 = $0.285 cost per pint
There are 8 pints in a gallon
Every gallon costs $2.28
You should be able to figure out everything else you need from the above information.
 

chicks & ducks

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a.james.wolf said:
50(lb) X 16 = 800 oz of powder
Cost $0.10 per oz of powder ($80 / 800)
$2.00 worth of powder (20 x $0.10) makes 7 pints
$2 / 7 = $0.285 cost per pint
There are 8 pints in a gallon
Every gallon costs $2.28
You should be able to figure out everything else you need from the above information.
Brilliant! Thanks so much!!! :D
 
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