Cross suckling in calves

[Spudley]

I am about to lose my mind with calves cross suckling. They're in group pens (as per milk buyers requirements) on cafeteria feeders with peach teats (which I leave in the pen 24/7) and I've still got cross suckling. And a calf with mastitis.

 

[Spudley]

Offenders have a plastic weaning ring but should I be isolating them??

 

[Beef farmer]

@Grassman247 has experience i believe

 

[Grassman247]

Individual pens is the only option, I’ve got auto machines and they still do it, normally I find it’s ones with consecutive numbers that do it so maybe split the groups with odd numbers. Are yours cross bred?

 

[vantage]

We’ve got jex hol, in the herd and some of the little b*****ds suck off other cows even with spiked nose rings

 

[Dr. Alkathene]

Only way I have found up to now is isolate the offenders. To me problems like that are more important sorted, than pandering to milk buyer

 

[Spudley]

Yes they are crossbreds. They are being weaned now which is obviously exacerbating the problem.

 

[Grassman247]

Yes they are crossbreds. They are being weaned now which is obviously exacerbating the problem.

If you don’t sort it now they will do it in the collecting yard as adults as I found 2 the other day at it with spikes in there noses

 

[Spudley]

I will make up some individual pens in the morning.

 

[Spudley]

Any thoughts if teat feeders are worse than buckets?

 

[Jamer]

We are going to try daily spraying teats with iodine to try preventing it. Just got rid of some persistent offenders in the store ring. Best not to think about the price.....

 

[som farmer]

we find channel *islands the worst, separated 2 that 1 sucked the other, spikes in her nose, no prob, she lost it, no prob, sorting hfrs out this week, b#stard straight to the hfr she'd been sucking ! they had been apart for 6 or 7 months,
what do you do with a smallish jer hfr 8 months in calf ? its not really fair to sell her in either dairy, or store ring, and goes against the grain to kill it, we shall perservere with spikes, or a ring with short chains on it, or, someone on here has a better idea!!!

 

[jimmer]

Two spikes, one upside down

 

[milkloss]

We are going to try daily spraying teats with iodine to try preventing it. Just got rid of some persistent offenders in the store ring. Best not to think about the price.....

Mind they don’t get a taste for it. We had a spray to stop the dog licking his wound, bitter cherry I think they called it. Is there a particular taste cows don’t like?

 

[Jamer]

If they get a taste for 10% iodine you could reasonably suggest we have deficiency.

I do think prevention at the earliest opportunity because it appears a very hard habit to break.

Does anyone feeding with barrels suffer with sucking?

 

[milkloss]

If they get a taste for 10% iodine you could reasonably suggest we have deficiency.

I do think prevention at the earliest opportunity because it appears a very hard habit to break.

Does anyone feeding with barrels suffer with sucking?

Years ago we used to have a 200l drum stuffed in a telehandler tyre with about 12 to 15 teats in it. Never had cross suckling because they had to work so hard to drink the milk: They’d run round it like a whirlwind for ten minutes or so and when some of them got on then one or two would run round knocking the others off and they’d start again.

Perhaps that’s the trick, make them work hard for it.

 

[Jamer]

Years ago we used to have a 200l drum stuffed in a telehandler tyre with about 12 to 15 teats in it. Never had cross suckling because they had to work so hard to drink the milk: They’d run round it like a whirlwind for ten minutes or so and when some of them got on then one or two would run round knocking the others off and they’d start again.

Perhaps that’s the trick, make them work hard for it.

I see your point, - we do barrels for beef and machine for dairy replacements with similar results but wanted to know if anyone has problems on barrels?

 

[Homesy]

I've got a cow that suckles. Put a spiky ring in her nose which stopped her suckling anything else but now she suckles herself !
Open to suggestions.

 

[Jamer]

My friend with the big red shoes...

 

[AndrewM]

have you tried a slower teat? like the milk bar ones? the longer the calves take to feed, the more chance to they have to make saliva