- Location
- cornwall
All our jersey calves get cold as lib whole milk from day one. They do fine
Feeding cold milk to calves
- Thread starter cull cows
- Start date
Iv got to admit I like the idea but I’m a bit nervous..Iv decided to put 6 in a pen an try them on cold milk.
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
It’s a bit of a trade off. They get a bit more powder to cover for the temp. That verses your time and electric. I like simple and The idea of having the right amount of calves in a pen for a bag of powder and mixing it with cold water is pretty simple.
I wouldn't want to drink cold milk if I was a calf. Depending on the amount of milk you need to mix you could use a couple of large stainless steel Tea Urns with timers on the plugs so you can set them to come on before you get to the shed. Or on our horse yard we have a 'Hippo' warm shower wash which would work a treat in your situation, it needs a gas bottle and a couple of batteries and that's it.
jimmer
Member
- Location
- East Devon
Cold is fine, fluctuation in water temperature is less than when mixing from random hot sources
In my experience less issues with nutritional scour
Some powders don't mix as well cold and leave undissolved bits in bottom, but if the powder is that sh!t you ought to question its use full stop
In my experience less issues with nutritional scour
Some powders don't mix as well cold and leave undissolved bits in bottom, but if the powder is that sh!t you ought to question its use full stop
Interesting how different experiences there are here, my personal experience is, consistent temperature is key whatever it is,, heating milk is cheaper than extra powder so that’s what I do.
A friend of mine had a powder rep round saying heating milk was unnecessary, he fed around 100 calves on cold milk for a few days, I think if the rep had returned when calves were dying from scours and most of the survivors were on electrolytes he would have been lucky to leave the farm alive
A friend of mine had a powder rep round saying heating milk was unnecessary, he fed around 100 calves on cold milk for a few days, I think if the rep had returned when calves were dying from scours and most of the survivors were on electrolytes he would have been lucky to leave the farm alive
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
We use shine OAD
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
Changing a calf’s diet was daft in the first place.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Same here, saves them gutsing it and ignoring the feed at their feet
Milk supplements their grass, not the other way around, and it makes shifting them to OAD or adlib CMR a lot easier in my experience. If they're runty they might get warm milk for a week.
jimmer
Member
- Location
- East Devon
Chap once had mixer that added powder to hot water then added cold down to 38 deg, the hot water burnt some of the goodness out of the powder
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
We learnt that one the hard way one year, calf rearer was hot water from the parlour for milk mixing and the calves really turned to crap quickly, had heaps of scouring until we worked out what was going on.
Cheers for bringing it up Jimmer
Grassman247
Member
Really doesn’t have to be difficult, those saying feed calves cold milk take the fuse out of the kettle and drink your brew cold for a week. Probably have the fuse back in after a day. Can’t believe in this day and age some still behave like this no wonder the vegans have plenty of ammunition.
Get yourself a couple of gas bottles, a 9v battery and one of these
Job done.
Get yourself a couple of gas bottles, a 9v battery and one of these
Job done.
buffalo_soldier
Member
- Location
- cumbria
I quite like the idea of a Heatwave milk warmer for ad lib feeding.
Needs power there though obvs.
Needs power there though obvs.
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
Yeah your absolutely right. After all these calves look bloody terrible
Worry about the calves, mind you don't fall down from up there old chap..
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
The beauty of a farming on a hill! Believe it or not I am at parlour height!
The calves look great,do you have to put weight in the bottom of the barrel to stop them pushing it over ?
- Location
- cornwall
Do you heat up their water and hay too?
You never drink water out of the tap or coke out if the fridge then?
Stop making silly comparisons, you sound like a vegan!
- Location
- cornwall
And for your information, I don’t often boast, but we have one of the best herds off jerseys in the country, feeding the calves cold milk.
Don’t lecture me, you sound like a vegan
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
Seen calves reared on cold milk powder last few years,absolute crap
Different milk powders and non of them mixed properly.
The fats in the milk powder don't dissolve into a liquid by instead drop to the bottom of the feed drum
Then there's growth rate
1.2 kgs of milk powder per day /growth rate average .4/.5kgs
Just reared autumn born calves on warm milk 1kg powder per day average growth rate .8 /1.2kgs per day
You have to realise that a calf has to warm that milk to body temperature before it can be digested so why not help it along
Ask yourself how much weight gain you are loosing with the energy of warming milk to body temperature
Different milk powders and non of them mixed properly.
The fats in the milk powder don't dissolve into a liquid by instead drop to the bottom of the feed drum
Then there's growth rate
1.2 kgs of milk powder per day /growth rate average .4/.5kgs
Just reared autumn born calves on warm milk 1kg powder per day average growth rate .8 /1.2kgs per day
You have to realise that a calf has to warm that milk to body temperature before it can be digested so why not help it along
Ask yourself how much weight gain you are loosing with the energy of warming milk to body temperature