- Location
- North devon
Yes. We are going to rear father in law calves for 80pence a calve a day. Iv just bought a 170litre jfc milk cart and 2 more 10 teat feeders
Contract Calve rearing
- Thread starter Smokey16
- Start date
You won't know you're born with that!
That'll play hell with the time spent and really speed the job on
- Location
- North devon
Atm we got a wydale mixer cart buy that only holds 120 litres of milk
- Location
- somerset
that's too long,
you need to look at how you do it, and where you can twist things around, to shorten that time. I agree about the straw, years ago bought some, with a lot of stone/flints in, scary enough seeing sparks come out of the spreader, let alone 1 hitting a calf.
Get a pal in, see if he could suggest a quicker way, fresh eyes often see more than your own.
ollie989898
Member
If someone is serious about calf rearing it's a robot feeder job. There is no other way.
- Location
- North devon
Plus the straw he buys in is crap straw slabs all stuck together and hell of dusty when go through chopper
I didnt know you already had cart. For the time you're spending it sounded like you're mixing it by hand.
- Location
- North devon
No but got to mix few loads up to feed 150 calves
- Location
- North devon
If the chap paid up well in the first place I would of invested more into the unit
- Location
- North devon
And I'm not going to get myself into debt for someone else
I think we'd all agree with that. But best foot forward now and hopefully we can help you out now. We've all been on the wrong end of a deal.
I think we need to help you speed the job up as that's where you'll make your money.
We don't want to cut corners as you're going a great job.
How do you get your hot water? How do you measure the milk powder? How do calves get drinking water? Doing these things in bulk could really motor you along
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
With one person or 2 people??
One person almost 8 man hours!!
Two people almost 16 man hours!!
Either way that is way wayyyyy too long for 150 calves.
That number all by hand should take no longer than 3.5hr man hours TOTAL.
2 hour max in morn.
1.5 half max in afternoon.
Calf rearing is a numbers game.
I'd advise if that's as quick as u can do it, just rent the barn out.
To clarify, I am solely talking routine work. Milk, bedding, water, grub.
No cleaning out, moving bales, steam cleaning, sorting animals.
ringi
Member
It sounds like if you reduce the suckler cows you could take dairy calfs at least to store stage yourself or even finish them. Removing 2 or 3 sets of macket commission along with infection risk and transport costs should allow capture of more of the end to end profits.
Last edited:
- Location
- somerset
It's still all down to the person looking after the calves.
For some it will work, for others it won't.
The biggest drawback with using a feeder, is the shed, they do pee a lot, and it's not so easy to keep them dry bedded. Plus you can soon use a lot of powder, at the expense of not so much creep feed. But that's management thing. It's like robotic milking, some get on with them, and quite a lot don't.
We have tried, 'computer' feeding, and for us, partly because we use milk, we have reverted back to individual pens, and teat buckets, even though the 'computer' system, was designed for individual pens. Our treated milk just didn't work with it.
ollie989898
Member
I know several dairy farmers who use the robot feeder things. In the unit I am thinking of area they are situated in is not bedded, but does have a drain directing the liquid away from the bedded area. Best calves you'll see anywhere. Most of the units in question have used them for years.
- Location
- somerset
used to use the pressure washer to mix powder, before we got a mixer.
Started off, using a steam washer, to heat and mix the powder, before we sorted out a water heater.
- Location
- somerset
wait till you see you one, where it doesn't work correctly.
the shed you use, is more important than whatever method you use. If the environment inside is wrong, you are banging your head against the wall.
Used to buy calves ex farm, I've seen purpose-built sheds fail, and some shite holes which work brilliantly, and everything in between.
ollie989898
Member
Oh absolutely. If the housing is pants and the farmer is pants then it won't work.
I used to rear calves in a fallen down old shed with stone floor. No auto fill water troughs and used just a 5 calf wydale feeder. I reared top calves for a dealer, back in 2011 I had a bb bull that they paid £600 for at 5 weeks classes as A+++. The other farm had a computer feeder and a purpose built shed. Mortality on heifers was over 20% and all bulls and beef went for dog food/ kebabs at 8 weeks.
- Location
- somerset
why do you think l rated environment first.
but you can't tell that to some, without upsetting them. Especially if they have spent £1000's on a new set up.
Old cowsheds, with tiled roofs, are often ideal, while looking completely unsuitable, you get air flow through them. When l started the calf job, tried 7 buildings, before we chose the correct 2, the difference was very obvious. The best shed was the least suitable one, by appearance, and it did eventually fall down.
The best by looks, was the worst, and yet, with our own calves, before we sold the dairy, was good, no mix of disease challenge, from calves sourced from different farms. We all tend to forget that they are just 'babies' with little protection from multi disease challenges.