All things Dairy

supercow

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Ad lib totally different to 2 big feeds twice a day plus another feed in the middle of the day
Ad-lib calves feed a little now and again
If a calf has scours the last thing you want to do is drown it in milk
Milk isn’t the cause of the scour. When I started the job I was even told if it’s scouring to give it less milk 🤣🤣🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
 

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire
When you’ve got the sh-to yourself you try to drink a lot to avoid dehydration and you stop eating ,til you start to feel better and then you start eating little bits at a time until you’re back to normal
Is that not the same as what you’re doing with the calf???
 
Levy money well spent. Where do I sign up for some of this £227/t cake?
Screenshot_2022-05-07-18-55-05-751_com.facebook.katana.jpg
 

brigend

Member
Livestock Farmer
Our Holstein calves are on 8 litres of whole milk from birth, taken out of the filter whilst milking. July block calving most will calve in a croft which I think helps. Never lost a female calf to scour in the history of the farm. Belgium blues will get 10 litres whole milk from a week old. Twice a day feeding. Can't beat whole milk out the filter good consistent feed and always the right temperature. Fed in buckets. We are Johnes free 8 years since our last positive and test the herd once a year so happy to feed whole milk.
 

coomoo

Member
Knew it was too good to be true, would have been 2 weeks today without anything dieing on me!
Still alive atm but I've got about 0 hope

Extra frustrating as this one was born outside and dam had rotavec 🙄 been having parafor, started scouring day before yesterday, drank 3l yesterday morning tubed with 2l of water yesterday lunch and drink 3.5l of milk last night, yesterday's temperatures were 38.7, 38.8 and 38.7 and had metacam day before yesterday for scour
When I went into milking cows @Jdunn55 I moved vet to someone I felt could help my shortcomings. Still with him today and still bounce thoughts and problems.
 

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
Anyone know how heavy their first cut was? Or what's typical?
Reckon we did just under 5 tonnes/acre freshweight here... but not a grassy farm.
 
Location
East Mids
A lot of research on calf rearing and with the genetic potential of these calves 125g/ltr is starving them and 150g/ltr is a maintenance ration
I would agree with you if they were being fed 2 litre/head twice a day, but I don't know anyone who still does that. It depends how many litres they have, doesn't it? We feed at the recommended rate per litre for our powder as that is how it is formulated. But we feed more per head. If we were 'starving' them then our Holstein heifers would not be 100 kg+ when weaned at 8 weeks and calving in at 24 months, something that we have been doing for years. Anyone who has seen pictures of our in-calf heifers has always agreed they look a picture.
 
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O'Reilly

Member
I would agree with you if they were being fed 2 litre/head twice a day, but I don't know anyone who still does that. It depends how many litres they have, doesn't it? We feed at the recommended rate per litre for our powder as that is how it is formulated. But we feed more per head. If we were 'starving' them then our Holstein heifers would not be 100 kg+ when weaned at 8 weeks and calving in at 24 months, something that we have been doing for years. Anyone who has seen pictures of our in-calf heifers has always agreed they look a picture.
And in giving more litres at a lower concentration, you are ensuring their fluid intake, rather than relying on them drinking water, which they will not be doing on a regular basis until they are a few weeks old. This could well be part of jdunns problem.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
And in giving more litres at a lower concentration, you are ensuring their fluid intake, rather than relying on them drinking water, which they will not be doing on a regular basis until they are a few weeks old. This could well be part of jdunns problem.
we feed 2l/feed, of acidified colostrum, any more, for calves under 5 weeks, scour, but they take water and cake, usually wean at 8 weeks, eating 2kg cake, comfortably, and grow to calve at 24 months, or if beef, to regularly top price as weaned calves, 3 months.
@O'Reilly is correct, they need to drink water, as early as possible, To increase their ability to transfer from calves, to weaned. There was a lot of research done, by volac, 2005'ish, to see if feeding a more concentrated milk, same powder, less water with it, didn't go anywhere with it, but the idea of getting calves, taking water, and it helps cake intake, was sound, the differences were small, v 'normal'. And we have found the principle to work well, with our a/milk.
Back in the late 60's early 70's, BOCM were advocating the use of separate buckets for milk and water, and not cleaning the milk buckets, right through, theory being the 'right' bugs grew in the curd. Tried it once, with a group of scouring calves, it works, but l like clean.
Beginning to think @JDunns problem might be management, or to much management.
 

Ducati899

Member
Location
north dorset
Is milk scour a real thing that will kill calves.

I don't think a healthy calf will ever die for the sole reason it was given too much milk.

However I do sometimes question the feeding of the milk when the calf is scouring. The milk is what the bugs are living off of.
A scouring calf won't die from lack of nutrients it will die from dehydration. So I would be tempted myself when a calf is scouring to cut the milk completely and rehydrate for a couple of days.


that’s what I do,cut milk out and give rehydration fluids 3 times a day…I’ll add to that,Only time I tried rehydration fluid and milk the calf died,find if I just use life aid extra,within 24ish hours calves are fighting fit,although I’ve not had to do one for about 6 months now since changing sheds…(touch wood)
 
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Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Maybe Jdunn55 should try going all natural and give the calves cows milk
Dad swears by this anything we put onto powder less than 10 days old seems to scour here.
Exactly, took our calves from 150 to 125 grams this year and fed more concentrate and fresh grass to save money and they look even better than last year.
As for parafor we only feed at quarter rate and it works well
Ours start at 100 and move to 140 at about 20 days old, I was very sceptical at the start but if I pushed any harder I was going to end up feeding the calves myself and to be fair the calves are looking really well and mortality is sub 1% on a rolling 12 month averageWe weigh them 2-3 times as they grow and are always ahead of target.

I do sometimes wonder if the level of nutrition suggested on the bag etc is too much for non Holstein calves. @Jdunn55 I’ve always felt calf rearing is really farm specific and have had vets/experts make suggestions over the years, some of which have been great and others that just have not worked here but no doubt work elsewhere. I’d always listen to what they have to say but remember a lot of them have not reared that many calves if any at all and it’s not always as easy as it says in their textbooks! 🤣
 

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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