Heatwave calf feeder

[farmertom]

Has anyone got any experience, good or bad, with heatwave calf feeders? Thinking of trying one for blue's and Friesian bulls.

Any information will be appreciated

 

[Cows 'n grass]

I keep my blues on them. They quickly get up to 10litres a day and grow like stink but they need a good free draining floor because they are also then pi$$ing 10 litres a day.

It's more fiddly to clean than I expected and you do need to keep it clean. In hot weather you need to use a preservative in the milk.

I'm about to buy another

 

[Grassman247]

I’ve got 7 on the go currently feeding all the bull calves, pasteurise all waste milk and add preservative, calves are drinking 10 litres a day and grow like stink. I’d say there fairly easy to clean and also not that complex so easy to maintain which is the key bit

 

[Milkcow365]

Can you feed powdered milk through them?

 

[Grassman247]

Can you feed powdered milk through them?

Ours ran low one day so I made up some milk powder seemed to work okay

 

[Milkcow365]

Ours ran low one day so I made up some milk powder seemed to work okay

Any tips for getting calves onto ad lib

 

[Grassman247]

Any tips for getting calves onto ad lib

So my calves go into a small pen within a large pen for 3 days on just colostrum then we let them out into the big pen where the tears are and honestly we just leave them to it, out of 250 bull calves so far this spring I’ve probably had to show 3 where the heatwave teats are

 

[buffalo_soldier]

I think they are fab, seriously thinking about getting set up with them myself for this year.

 

[Barmyfarmer]

Anyone doing dairy hfrs on the heatwave?

 

[Scholsey]

How do you all clean them out? Found my student taking the metal/yellow plastic end off and putting the pump on the end and pumping detergent and water through to the teats and flushing them out that way and then pumping milk back through it to prime it and flush out the water, again with the hand pump, seemed to work well although isnt the recommended way of doing it, guessing there are issues with doing it that way?

 

[Grassman247]

How do you all clean them out? Found my student taking the metal/yellow plastic end off and putting the pump on the end and pumping detergent and water through to the teats and flushing them out that way and then pumping milk back through it to prime it and flush out the water, again with the hand pump, seemed to work well although isnt the recommended way of doing it, guessing there are issues with doing it that way?

I do exactly what your student does except I take the teats off and drop them in my hot water bucket, I don’t pump fresh milk through rather drop the pipe back in the barrel and put the teat back on and draw it through by squeezing the teat, that also gives good indication as to wether it’s drawing milk properly and if the teat needs replacing

 

[Grassman247]

Anyone doing dairy hfrs on the heatwave?

I tried but had difficulty in weaning them, @Barmyfarmer I’ve sent you a PM

 

[Cookie]

Be very careful cleaning the heatwaves out. I had a trip to A&E after the pipe blew off mid cleaning and I had a jet of hot water and D90 right across my eyes, I thought I had blinded myself.

I haven’t used them for the spring calves this time, they’re still on the same ad-lib setup but without the heatwave box. Intakes are the same and the calves are looking just as well, I think the mild weather has helped this though.

 

[pappuller]

How many calves/teats per heatwave ? How far from the unit could you place teats ? @farmerton has got me thinking. how big a vessel for the milk and how many fills a day ?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

How many calves/teats per heatwave ? How far from the unit could you place teats ? @farmerton has got me thinking. how big a vessel for the milk and how many fills a day ?

With blues I have 2 pens of 20 on one machine and fill a 200l drum once a day.

 

[jimmer]

I just put a trough in the pen and fill it up

 

[jimmer]

Any tips for getting calves onto ad lib

Just start them from day one

 

[farmertom]

How many calves/teats per heatwave ? How far from the unit could you place teats ? @farmerton has got me thinking. how big a vessel for the milk and how many fills a day ?

Is that just the Cheshire pressure kicking in?

 

[Agrispeed]

My system is just Peach teats, parlourboard and tubing, I use a bucket or barrel of milk, topped up as necessary and the calves adapt to drinking cold milk very quickly. Wouldn't work with powder though

 

[pappuller]

Is that just the Cheshire pressure kicking in?

Just keeping up with the joneses