betweenthelines
Member
- Location
- southwest
Isn't 4 litres in one whack too much for a newborn calf?
All things Dairy
- Thread starter Cows 'n grass
- Start date
Ducati899
Member
- Location
- north dorset
multi power
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
More to life
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Depends on the size of the calf
multi power
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
Well yes 4 litres for a 20 kg might be a bit much
10% of body weight within the first 6 hours
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
100% agree with you, bigger speedy feeder here at 4 litres, but v occasionally tubing is a necessity with a calf that will not suck, but I dont like doing it and fortunately only have to do one or two a year, the calf lady has the patience to get them sucking and thats why I leave her to it.
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
We will let them take as much as they can blues will take upto 6 litres on a first feed but usually 4 or 5 and generally they wont take alot more for 24 hrs
Ducati899
Member
- Location
- north dorset
Tube everything here for first 2 feeds then on the bucket with teat. Must use the tube 1000+ times a year. Never drowned a calf yet. If they start making a noise they are almost certainly full so stop. Also if they are running round the pen and you can hardly catch them they are full. You just have to be sensible.
Irish NZ
Member
- Location
- The mighty Waikato NZ
Tubing is the very very last resort.
Some interesting work done re tubing over here and pretty much confirms my suspicions.
As bad as the Bobbie industry is it hive vet great insights into what is happening on farm with real world tubing
Long story short. 90% your doing damage to the calf throat.
Then where is the milk ending up when a calf sucks(abomasum) where does the tube put it... rumen. The boobie calves that have been tubes are found with large amount of congealed milk sitting in their rumens.
2 litres sucks would be as good as 4 tubed.
I'm not anti tubing as it has saved the lives of plenty calves but as a standard practice we can do better.
And you need to train the calf the feed the next day anyway.
Just for reference my other half does all the calves here. Not uncommon to have 30+fresh calves dropped off per day at peak. It's perfectly doable to bottle feed everything
Some interesting work done re tubing over here and pretty much confirms my suspicions.
As bad as the Bobbie industry is it hive vet great insights into what is happening on farm with real world tubing
Long story short. 90% your doing damage to the calf throat.
Then where is the milk ending up when a calf sucks(abomasum) where does the tube put it... rumen. The boobie calves that have been tubes are found with large amount of congealed milk sitting in their rumens.
2 litres sucks would be as good as 4 tubed.
I'm not anti tubing as it has saved the lives of plenty calves but as a standard practice we can do better.
And you need to train the calf the feed the next day anyway.
Just for reference my other half does all the calves here. Not uncommon to have 30+fresh calves dropped off per day at peak. It's perfectly doable to bottle feed everything
Dead Rabbits
Member
- Location
- 'Merica
Pretty much my thoughts on it.
I find that the first feed (first hour or so) they wolf down with the bottle and teat. Had one calf midnight last week, calved cow had BBB calf, milked out cow and fed calve straight away and it had 6 ltrs in the first 10mins of life! Its now at the vets on a drip
bloody crypto
bloody crypto
Sylution
Member
- Location
- Carmarthenshire
On my way round the fields today laying down and checking mole traps. Caught 6 this week.
January sun behind me and fields that have had slurry 6 weeks ago are looking well and greening up. Whisper quietly I think they are growing to. Love this job on days like this. Sorry to you northeners.
January sun behind me and fields that have had slurry 6 weeks ago are looking well and greening up. Whisper quietly I think they are growing to. Love this job on days like this. Sorry to you northeners.
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supercow
Member
- Location
- Dumfriesshire
Same, we r very cruel people, just wait we will get the animal cruelty police on us
supercow
Member
- Location
- Dumfriesshire
When I came back from uni we had 130 cows, we now have 230 that's with selling on average 15 heifers a year, I have only ever tubed a calve and first 2 feeds are tubed, surely if I was doing such a bad job by tubing the poor wee calves I would still be at 130 cow numbers and selling heifers would be out of the question
You left uni 46 years ago?
supercow
Member
- Location
- Dumfriesshire
I don't understand ? Saying that I didn't read the whole of mr nz speech!
Irish NZ
Member
- Location
- The mighty Waikato NZ
Mr cow
To get such a defensive response to something not directed at you must have hit a nerve.... that or your self esteem must be sky high
I never said your going to kill the bloody things just there is a better way of doing it... and there is evidence that is does cause internal injury to the animal. surely you have to question the need to tube for the first 2 feeds...
Are we not all trying to work to the highest level of stockmanship so I would say move away from what is effectively force feeding animal that doesn't require it would be a no brainer?
It's is not a good look for the industry...
Not to be confused with tubing a sick animal to help save it life(as I have said before I agree with)
After 2 feeds with the tube do they still not need to be trained onto the teat?
Kind regards
Mr Irish
Ps. My previous post was more than a few lines I will admit but however it wasn't exactly Leo Tolstoy's war and peace so do bare with me to the end.