I just received a long letter from a fellow (big time) rancher warning of the dire consequences of using a soy based milk replacer on calves. I doubt that I can post it here but will ask - legal issues ya know.... Just beware ! collie
This is an excerpt from the long article by rancher Maria Neilsen..... If you want the whole thing, I will be glad to email it out( by bcc) to you just pm me your email address.
(vet).....He said that milk replacer companies change their ingredients all the time based on economics and what is cheaper and available. I laughed and read the label and he said my crude fiber was way too high at 1% the protein and fat levels should be 20% or higher and the crude fiber level should be .15% or lower. Well I never read the label any further cause I was sure it was a bad bug and we still continued on with the testing. Nothing came back conclusive except the malnutrition and anemia and organ failure on the two calves that I kept alive for months and finally they died. I had one last calf that I got late and she was a twin and she started out the same thing I was devastated and he told me buy some cows milk in the store whole milk get that calf off your powdered milk replacer NOW!!! I did and in four bottles she went from dying to running and bucking and normal poops and healthy thriving calf. I started buying raw goats milk since I had no other powdered milk choices at the time for calves. She thrived
The company I complained to said it was probably the soy alternative proteins in the milk replacer. I started researching this subject and have come up with this info to help others who find themselves in my position with calves and wonder what is wrong. Read your ingredients and see if you have Soy in your milk replacers. Thought it was just calves but now I am finding it in lamb and goat and foal and multi species formulas as well. BEWARE!!! They can not tolerate it and I will tell you why. I got conformation from a top nutritionist from that company I complained to and he informed me when I asked about the dairy industry knowing this he said THEY know better and this stuff cheaper poorer quality ends up typically in the feed stores......................................
WHY can they NOT digest SOY in the calf milk replacer??? :
Calves are born with a complex and immature digestive system. They have the physical attributes of a ruminant, a reticulum, rumen, omasum and abomasum. The four chambers of the stomach. But until these first three stomachs are developed a calf is considered a monogastric because only the abomasum is functioning. Unable to process or digest complex carbohydrates or cellulose into nutrients. In fact a newborn or young calf’s early feedings of colostrum, milk or milk replacer are shunted directly passed the first three stomachs and into the abomasum via the esophageal groove. The abomasum is the main digestive organ in early life. The rumen in a newborn to young calf is nonfunctioning. It begins growing around weeks 3-4, depending on when grain and calf starter along with fresh water and milk it receives from the cow or the bottle. The rumen grows rapidly and during the first 5-6 months and is considered fully functioning around 6-9 months. At first they need all milk proteins from cows milk or milk replacer containing several of these ingredients: Skimmed milk, Dried Whey Protein, Whey Protein Concentrate, Dried Whey, Dried Whey product, Casein, Buttermilk or Dried Milk Proteins. When a calf sucks a bottle or the cow. Within ten minutes the milk forms a clot, which it can only do when you have all milk proteins, in the abomasum from the coagulation of milk proteins. It does this with the enzymes rennin and pepsin and hydrochloric acid in the abomasum. Other milk components, primarily whey proteins, lactose {sugar} and most minerals separate from the curd or clot and rapidly pass into the small intestine. The lactose is digested quickly and provides immediate energy.
..grab him and off to the barn with sis driving. I have his hind end the wrong way (if he poops) but that the way it happens sometimes when I grab them .... That's ok, the RTV is tough! I am a firm believer in "a bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush" same goes with calves . ha ha. So, now they are full with an extra dose of colostrix in a bottle ..just to be sure.. and then put with their mama for a night in the dry barn. 
