I can't seem to find much about this, any pointers to some info?
Calf feeder ideas
- Thread starter ImLost
- Start date
I can't seem to find much about this, any pointers to some info?
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
I think that all depends on what animal you are growing. Rearing a dairy heifer is a completely different ball game to a beef animal
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
I was just trying to ascertain and understand the system you were doing. 100 calves in at once? Age range? How many groups you hoping to split it down into?
We put through 800+ calves a year through our system. Unfortunately they dont ONLY come from a dairy or two
Ah I see! It sounded more like a surprise question as if there were only 99 calves in the world, where are you ever going to get 100?! ?
I was hoping to keep them in as large groups and as in as similar size/age calf groups as possible, although if I could build a system that fed several pens at once I would likely do smaller groups.
I also used 100+ as a vague number, could be more could be less as supply varies at different times.
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
If you are sourcing from only one or two places then management, group sizes, feeding and health is so much more straight forward.
The reason I ask about the 100 was if you were having to get them in from multiple places - inc markets and collection centres -then just chucking them in to large groups and letting the get on with it with an ad lib feeder would - in my humble opinion - lead to disaster and you having no hair left!
- Location
- somerset
toying around in my head, to feed beef calves, next spring, dairy hfrs we are fine with, beef really need ad lib. As we block calve, we acidify and store colostrum, my idea, at the moment, is barrel of milk, a spiral pipe, as in teat sprayers, passing through a warm water bath, thinking fish aquarium heater, or immersion heater.
Currently, all individual pens, and teat bucket, calves do well, but lose their 'bloom', which for the beef calves, knocks the price ! Milk powder, simple, you get what you pay for, mixing quantities, haven't changed for years, calves have, so bear that in mind. The cheapest growth cost, for a calf, is birth to 3 months, anyone cutting costs, buying cheap powder, or cutting powder back, or not using calf pellets, is daft, you lose more growth, at maximum growth rate, you will never make that growth rate, economically again !
Currently, all individual pens, and teat bucket, calves do well, but lose their 'bloom', which for the beef calves, knocks the price ! Milk powder, simple, you get what you pay for, mixing quantities, haven't changed for years, calves have, so bear that in mind. The cheapest growth cost, for a calf, is birth to 3 months, anyone cutting costs, buying cheap powder, or cutting powder back, or not using calf pellets, is daft, you lose more growth, at maximum growth rate, you will never make that growth rate, economically again !
- Location
- somerset
its all about time, environment, consistency of food, and the best food, get them right, mortality rate, scour cases, pneumonia cases, and antibiotic use, and vaccinations, shrink to near nothing. Unless you are unlucky, and get hit with crypto, or rotavirus, the crypto is a barsteward, the rotavirus, can be easily avoided, by vaccinating the dams, not easy, if you buy in calves, from mkts.
I learnt the hard way, first ever batch of calves I reared had crypto. It near killed me, stuck me in hospital for a few days!
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
Often have this conversation with our vet.
Dairy Heifer - fine - ram as much of the best quality milk powder into them as you can. That animal needs to get in calf and then produce, and it needs to do that over and over again for years.
A beef animal - lives 2 years? And you need to make money on it?
You get what u pay for when it comes to milk powder, but it HAS to be a balancing act. How much you chuck into them and when you wanna wean off has to be balanced as well. Calf pellets aren't needed imo. The correct home mix can be v effective.
- Location
- Fife
ollie989898
Member
Growth rates on powder are very high. Often the greatest rate of growth in any animal's life. Why then would you restrict it?
ollie989898
Member
I would reckon that the right coarse mix would be superior to virtually any calf nut- include some oats.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
^^^^ this
We make powder milk up by the batch and put a yoghurt sachet per 200 litres to keep it.
In my experience the main issue is time, mixing milk when under pressure is where things go wrong, so it's better for us to set aside time to mix it right and then you have a more consistent milk substitute, which is better for the little rumen than the daily mixup my bosses used to encourage.
...completely different system we use to what you guys do, what we used to do on the dairies; no rush to throw money at calves, no hurry to grow them big as then they eat more grub over the first winter - IMO that's what spring is for.
We get consistently better results the less milk replacer we use per calf, down to about 33kg.
The milk stage is about rumen development, and if it's pumped full of milk it doesn't need to develop... and then the weaning check is bigger
(Just like putting fert on grass monthly, it doesn't need to develop deeper roots, and then the dry has a bigger impact)
What we find with dairy calves is there's a huge range in performance between individuals even from one farm, so we do our costings around the worst ones and not the average; projections based on averages give average results where projections based on worst case scenarios give us reliable profits.
As you say Zippy it's a different scenario with dairy replacements for sale, as they need to be at weight by mating.
All beef needs to do is make me $1000 and the more I spend the less I make.
Thanks, I will give it a read.
- Location
- somerset
that early growth is the cheapest 'growth' you can get, why would you not make the most of it ? If you have the 'right' set-up, the money saved on a/b scour etc, will more than cover the extra cost of powder, having reared calves, you soon realise money has to be watched, and if you listen to the vets, they will soon have you vaccinating, for this, and that, and to a degree, the type of calf you rear, effects how much you spend, I reared a lot of hol bull calves, that went 'up country' into bull beef units. Not buying calves, nor milk powder, I am out of touch with powder price, but I would think the difference, between top/bottom, quality, is £12 max ? On a bb bull calve, that's not a lot, and you are right, its a balancing act, the growth rate, per day, v powder cost saved, growth rate walks all over the saving !
On coarse/home mix, v pellets, I dithered, but eventually pellets won, though it hurt buying 3 ton starter pellets a time, didn't seem so bad buying 1 or 1/2 ton mix ! I found calves 'sorted' through mix, and, as each 'pellet' contains, a bit of everything, the diet was more balanced, 8 to 10 weeks onward, home mix, with extra molasses, wins hands down !
As kiwi pete says, money in/out, but he is working on 33 kg powder, most over here would work on 25 kg, a bag a calf. We use, acidified colostrum, which stores well, never tried yogurt, but have been thinking of trying it, but, apart from an odd calf or two, we are finished till end feb/march 2021, great !
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- Location
- somerset
we only had it the once, and in our own calves, as soon as we 'realised' what it was, new hurdles different building ! The number of calves we lost, was bad enough, but the ones we saved were 'bad doers', then the work of tubing them, feeding x4 a day, we decided, another time, straight in with halocur, and a lead injection, for those that looked 'bad'.
When I reared 100's, all calves went on an A/B course for 5 days, so, surprisingly, never really come across it, only heard about it !
We gradually decrease the temperature and then begin giving them water only in the morning for 3-4 days then morning to evening etc. We don't struggle to get them eating concentrate even before weaning which is surprising. We leave them on milk till they finish the tonne of powder unless there's a few smaller ones which need a bit longer then we'll house those seperatley from the rest.
Once they finish all the powder unless they are small then they will get housed seperatley and kept on milk for a few more weeks. Hard to no the exact age as they all come in at different ages.
1.2-1.4 on average per day at peak
One of the ideas I have had, which is growing on me, is to have a length of rigid pipe with teats along it, which I can lower down into calf pens.
On one end I would have a cap which can be unscrewed for drainage and cleaning, and the other end maybe have a u bend?
Then have an ibc tank for mixing milk in which has a u bend off the tap at the bottom, which goes into the u bend on the pipe which would be facing up
That way the pipe and ibc tank can easily be separated for cleaning etc.
Would the basic idea work? Or have I missed something vital?? I would be glad of constructive criticism.
On one end I would have a cap which can be unscrewed for drainage and cleaning, and the other end maybe have a u bend?
Then have an ibc tank for mixing milk in which has a u bend off the tap at the bottom, which goes into the u bend on the pipe which would be facing up
That way the pipe and ibc tank can easily be separated for cleaning etc.
Would the basic idea work? Or have I missed something vital?? I would be glad of constructive criticism.