Milk bar teat buckets advice

[Farmer_1994]

Looking at switching to milk bar teat buckets for individual calf pens. Anything we should know before we do? Should we be taking the buckets away after feeding so calves don’t suck and chew the nipples to much? How often do they need cleaning? Currently use nipple bottles and it is very labour intensive and to get our desired intakes during winter we would need to feed calves 3x a day.

Not interested in bucket feeding calves, only want opinions on nipple buckets.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Best practice will involve daily cleaning which will mean removing the buckets.

 

[Barmyfarmer]

We use these, had them years, very handy and strong, we take them away as soon as the calves finish, they are a bit fiddly to clean but fully submerged in hot water after every feed and squeeze the teat while it's under water, a pain to store because you can't stack but you can hang them on a rail

 

[som farmer]

we use single feeders, difficult to describe, or name ! basically a flat sided bucket, with a teat, and a moulded handle that fits over pen front, when calf finished, just tip it back over the front, calf cannot get to tit, dead easy to flip back over to refill, ours came from Fane Valley Supplies, via ebay, no doubt other places do them, but we have never seen them in a store !
Tarw Coch, at one time, the 'best' advice, was not to wash the buckets out at all ! Reason, natural bugs would multiply, and the calf would benefit from them. Having reared 1000's of calves, as a general rule, we wash buckets, once a day.
But, on the odd bunch that wouldn't get 'going', I have tried not washing, and it has worked well, supprisingly, the difference to today, would probably be 'added' supplements, as in probiotics. But, I hate seeing dirty buckets, we use acidified milk, which aids breakdown, in the calves stomach, much the same, I would think.

 

[Farmer_1994]

Best practice will involve daily cleaning which will mean removing the buckets.

Once daily is what we were thinking, other feeding we thought just run by with hose and rinse and let the calves drink that to.

 

[Farmer_1994]

@Barmyfarmer @som farmer what capacity are your nipple buckets? We are looking for a bucket that can hold up to 4.5L

 

[pappuller]

We use these, had them years, very handy and strong, we take them away as soon as the calves finish, they are a bit fiddly to clean but fully submerged in hot water after every feed and squeeze the teat while it's under water, a pain to store because you can't stack but you can hang them on a rail

We have used these with peach teats for years, once finished remove from pen, we feed and clean feeders twice a day with hot water, teats will eventually leak and need replacing

 

[Bald Rick]

We have used these with peach teats for years, once finished remove from pen, we feed and clean feeders twice a day with hot water, teats will eventually leak and need replacing

Ditto but clean with Fairy Liquid (detergent) every other day and probably should use hyperchloride occasionally

 

[Water Wheel]

We use a 12 calf teat feeder, one feeder per pen , almost never clean it in winter, just hose out in summer, when badly needed. Never move feeder or calves from pen to pen.
Ours have lids to keep straw etc out.

Shouldn't say this ,tempting fate, we currently have 6 full pens and no scour.

 

[lazy farmer]

Really admire the attention to detail and the time spent per calf displayed here ??

 

[vantage]

We use a 12 calf teat feeder, one feeder per pen , almost never clean it in winter, just hose out in summer, when badly needed. Never move feeder or calves from pen to pen.
Ours have lids to keep straw etc out.

Shouldn't say this ,tempting fate, we currently have 6 full pens and no scour.

Not just me then.

 

[Agrispeed]

I feed yoghurt or paint the feeders with it. Cleaning out isn’t recommended any more than every 4 weeks, I’m block calving so they get left for 8months and sterilised & New Teats between groups. Much easier to grow probiotic cultures than try and keep calf feeders 100% sterile!

 

[Cuthbert]

I feed yoghurt or paint the feeders with it. Cleaning out isn’t recommended any more than every 4 weeks, I’m block calving so they get left for 8months and sterilised & New Teats between groups. Much easier to grow probiotic cultures than try and keep calf feeders 100% sterile!

So just put a bit of natural yogurt in the milk every feed. Is that what you do?

 

[som farmer]

I feed yoghurt or paint the feeders with it. Cleaning out isn’t recommended any more than every 4 weeks, I’m block calving so they get left for 8months and sterilised & New Teats between groups. Much easier to grow probiotic cultures than try and keep calf feeders 100% sterile!

going full circle then ! advocated back in the eighties, or earlier, then denounced as bad husbandry, now not to bad !! The question, I would like an answer to, is this, how much have the 'experts' earnt in between, through all the 'research' they have done ? A sizable amount, and we have paid them !

 

[MD @Minshall Buildings]

 

[som farmer]

looks an expensive way of feeding calves, wydales just hang over the front, we use ones that just hook over, anything nut and bolted, just complicates the system,

 

[MD @Minshall Buildings]

Its only the bracket that's bolted on .The bucket just slips over the tangs at the top of the bracket. Bracket stop calves pushing the bucket off. Not expensive at all. We profiled these brackets originally for new calf building we built at Dairy Innovation centre and have since supplied to other farms.