Feeding cold milk to calves

[Cows 'n grass]

Chances are this will go for £1

 

[Cows 'n grass]

This was supposed to go in 12 months ago and finally went on today. I definitely prefer feeding warm milk, so hopefully this is not a waste of money. It's fitted with a blending valve so the water will come out at the same temperatures whoever is feeding the calves.

The real shame is that the calves are on a different farm from the cows and where the cows are we dump hot water out of the heat recovery system.

 

[som farmer]

If a dairy feeds their own whole milk, would it be cold / pasturised?

we store and acidify our colostrum, have a milk taxi, which heats the milk to exact temp, single pens for hfr calves till 6/8 weeks, bull calves get into 5's as soon as drinking from teats strongly. It is claimed that if you leave the milk for 3 days, after acidifying, that kills johnes, jury is still out,
All cows have rota vac, min boluses at drying of, plus dc mins all through the dry period.
As calves are only 'babies' will no or little reserves of energy, why do farmers try and 'save' money, there will never be the chance again, in the whole life of a calf, that you can get the weight gains you can get, in the first 2 months. To leave calves shivering after feeding cold milk, is sheer stupidity, it's like throwing £5 notes away. That calf has to use energy to warm the milk up, in it's stomach, before it can actually get the energy, to grow, from that milk, using warm milk, the calf can use all of the energy in growth. It's no wonder that the av cost of rearing a hfr, to calving is quoted at £1500/calf. And it cannot be much less with beef.
Calves are easy to rear, just follow the basics, warmth, clean air, no draughts, and correct food - a calf in cold weather, needs more energy than in warm weather, and a regular routine, warm milk, clean water and solid food. So many farmers cannot rear calves successfully, proved by the feed industry, is spending so much effort in pushing better rearing of calves, which means faster growth, which means the calf reaches it's optimum weight quicker, which in turn means more potential profit.

 

[Ribble]

we store and acidify our colostrum, have a milk taxi, which heats the milk to exact temp, single pens for hfr calves till 6/8 weeks, bull calves get into 5's as soon as drinking from teats strongly. It is claimed that if you leave the milk for 3 days, after acidifying, that kills johnes, jury is still out,
All cows have rota vac, min boluses at drying of, plus dc mins all through the dry period.
As calves are only 'babies' will no or little reserves of energy, why do farmers try and 'save' money, there will never be the chance again, in the whole life of a calf, that you can get the weight gains you can get, in the first 2 months. To leave calves shivering after feeding cold milk, is sheer stupidity, it's like throwing £5 notes away. That calf has to use energy to warm the milk up, in it's stomach, before it can actually get the energy, to grow, from that milk, using warm milk, the calf can use all of the energy in growth. It's no wonder that the av cost of rearing a hfr, to calving is quoted at £1500/calf. And it cannot be much less with beef.
Calves are easy to rear, just follow the basics, warmth, clean air, no draughts, and correct food - a calf in cold weather, needs more energy than in warm weather, and a regular routine, warm milk, clean water and solid food. So many farmers cannot rear calves successfully, proved by the feed industry, is spending so much effort in pushing better rearing of calves, which means faster growth, which means the calf reaches it's optimum weight quicker, which in turn means more potential profit.

Thanks, very informative.

I heard that a university study done in feedlots found that a calf born in spring summer was 5x less likely to develop an illness in the feedlot than calf with a winter birth date. They determined that it was due to better colostrum and nutrition in the first weeks from a mother on grass

So what you say about that window of time to get them going, maybe it's not just the weight it's probably all kinds of lifetime effects, and perhaps could include fertility, longevity, who knows how many £5 notes.

 

[cull cows]

So Iv bought one of these heaters got it on a timer to come on at 7am and 5pm and set at 40*.so far so good.Thankyou for you ideas

 

[som farmer]

Thanks, very informative.

I heard that a university study done in feedlots found that a calf born in spring summer was 5x less likely to develop an illness in the feedlot than calf with a winter birth date. They determined that it was due to better colostrum and nutrition in the first weeks from a mother on grass

So what you say about that window of time to get them going, maybe it's not just the weight it's probably all kinds of lifetime effects, and perhaps could include fertility, longevity, who knows how many £5 notes.

used to buy a lot of calves ex farm, on many farms, the calf rearing for their hfr calves to keep, was appalling, they would be very careful to make sure every calf had colostrum, then down hill from there. Buying calves in mkt, you soon learnt what farms to not bid on, as did other buyers.
Your point about summer v winter calves, is easy to explain, in winter, calves use more energy to keep warm, so should be fed more. The instructions on a bag of milk powder, are the same mixing rate, as 30 years ago, the calves are not, and we used to up that rate, the more quality food, you can safely feed baby calves, the more they grow, the food conversion rate will never be better, trying to save money, at this stage, actually costs you.
We currently have 70 calves on the bucket, which will soon be 100+ all home bred. We have not yet tubed a calf, for colostrum or scour, we have injected 1 with a/b, as a precaution, and have not lost a single calf, yet. When its cold shitty weather, they get an extra .5 litre/day, to compensate. We pay a girl to come in, and feed them, the same amount of the same temp milk, at the same time, every day, extra when cold, creep and fresh water from day one, and plenty of straw to 'nestle' down in, the result, growing extremely well.

 

[Full of bull(s)]

So Iv bought one of these heaters got it on a timer to come on at 7am and 5pm and set at 40*.so far so good.Thankyou for you ideas

Just keep an eye on the plug, mine melted it to the timer plug then to the socket! It is the 3kw model though. Ended up with an in line immersion timer powered through a 16A plug