What milk feeder?

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Currently rearing calves in pens of 5 with a wydale feeder but can be time consuming when several to feed so was thinking maybe put them in pens of 10 and buy a milk bar type feeder anyone any experience of them? I know a few of you said the peach teats are the best but can you buy a milk bar with peach teats? Also do you find calves knock each other off easy?

Thanks.

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

hmmmm. I could take a look online and see if you can get the,m, I am sure you can... Peach teats work well, although I prefer ritchey teats for my buffalo calves. Every calf is different so all may not necessariy take to peach teats, but definitely would be a good option to go for. Yes calves will generally knock each other off very easily. The bigger and greedier ones will knock off the smaller ones, so may be better to seperate into groups own size/age/strength to avoid that Atm I am bucket feeding about 12 calves, 2 each time, 1 in each hand, so is rather tricky...

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

here is some stuff I have found...
http://www.kiwikit.co.uk/peach-teats/
https://www.coburn.com/milk-bar-feeders

 

[alan6430]

We use milk bars with peach teats on. We are very in to this calf rearing job, and find the black peach teats rubbish compared to pink teats even tho they should be the same.

It would be better to have more groups of 5 and get 2 feeders. Our feeders have separate compartments for each teat so you can be sure of how much they are drinking which is very important. If you have a big feeder with 10 teats from one big compartment then greedy calves will get more than others, then that's no good

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

We use milk bars with peach teats on. We are very in to this calf rearing job, and find the black peach teats rubbish compared to pink teats even tho they should be the same.

It would be better to have more groups of 5 and get 2 feeders. Our feeders have separate compartments for each teat so you can be sure of how much they are drinking which is very important. If you have a big feeder with 10 teats from one big compartment then greedy calves will get more than others, then that's no good

Yeh I see what you mean problem is with two feeders you can only watch on group at a time I was thinking more like this.

Interesting to know about the pink peach teats though. So how do you rear your calves in pens of 5?

 

[alan6430]

Pens of 5, Steph got 10 pens and 47 on milk currently. 2 feeders works well by the time you get the next lot of milk ready then you can get the next lot started before the first lot finishes then just watch them for last few minutes.

 

[sidjon]

I've used feeders for 12 calves for years now but only feed 11 on them , so our pens are either 11 , 22 or 33. So calves don't knock off others while their drinking, use peach teat and have stallion feeders and milk bar too and have broken both, but design has changed since I got the last ones five years ago.

 

[sidjon]

We use milk bars with peach teats on. We are very in to this calf rearing job, and find the black peach teats rubbish compared to pink teats even tho they should be the same.

Pink teats are colostrum/starter teats and black are for older calves.

 

[Rossymons]

Milk bar works fine. Number of teats irrelevant so long as it's compartment as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Headless chicken]

We don't have he compartmented ones. If they're all similar age competition is important imo

 

[TomB]

We mostly do pens of 10, 10 teat feeder with milk bar teats. Each pen has

its own feeder. Can feed a lot of calves quickly and they do well.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

We mostly do pens of 10, 10 teat feeder with milk bar teats. Each pen hasView attachment 573612 View attachment 573614 View attachment 573616 its own feeder. Can feed a lot of calves quickly and they do well.

Thank you for sharing that that's just what we are thinking. What teats you using the milk bar ones?

 

[TomB]

Thank you for sharing that that's just what we are thinking. What teats you using the milk bar ones?

Milk bar, but tempted by peach if they are as good as people say - and last longer?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Milk bar, but tempted by peach if they are as good as people say - and last longer?

I don't understand his some people say they get 3 years out of a set of peach teats. Three quarters of ours will be knackered and leaking by the end of each season so we change the lot each year.

 

[Beef farmer]

Once they are teat trained, they either go out or in mobs of 12/15 on a barrel with peach teats.

 

[Beef farmer]

I don't understand his some people say they get 3 years out of a set of peach teats. Three quarters of ours will be knackered and leaking by the end of each season so we change the lot each year.

Need to budget on a teat per calf. Or at least we do.

 

[Friesianfan]

Yeh I see what you mean problem is with two feeders you can only watch on group at a time I was thinking more like this.
View attachment 573578

Interesting to know about the pink peach teats though. So how do you rear your calves in pens of 5?

What I used to do is have two feeders. Put the milk in for the older calves and let them get on with it, then feed the youngest and watch them and repeat. Don't think you'll beat the wydale feeders. My brother is still using the same ones 15 years later

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

What I used to do is have two feeders. Put the milk in for the older calves and let them get on with it, then feed the youngest and watch them and repeat. Don't think you'll beat the wydale feeders. My brother is still using the same ones 15 years later

They do last well we have had ours for years.

 

[Headless chicken]

Once they are teat trained, they either go out or in mobs of 12/15 on a barrel with peach teats. View attachment 573662

How do you fill that and get it out to clean it?

 

[Beef farmer]

How do you fill that and get it out to clean it?

Feed out side calves with milk bar, then drive around pens and chuck required amount of milk in each barrel with bucket, I was going to put a small pump on an ibc, mounted in a trailer, but I've A-run out of time and B- spent too much this year. There is 15 pens with barrels in, and 5 more being hung up tomorrow, and can be fed very quickly.

As for cleaning it, it only gets cleaned between batches of calves. Working on the theory that they are there own bugs, trailed milk bar gets hot hypo wash every feed, as it visits multiple calve groups.