Automatic Calf feeders

bud10

Just wondering has anyone any experience of using the computerised automatic calf feeders? How did you get on? Are they worth the cost - very exp (10K) from what i hear?

Just looking for thoughts from other users experience, was thinking of buying one maybe.

Thanks

whelan1

was thinking about this , it is quite expensive for a machine that will only be used for a few months isnt it

bud10

Exactly what i was thinking.

But to rear say 90 -100 calves, do you think this feeder could do a better job rearing the calf especially when they are dairy bred calves and want to bring these calves to beef or replacement heifers at 2 years of age

5live

Was at ploughing to look at those babies. 10k will get you 4feed stations and ability to use milk or replacer. Auto wash. 2 calves can drink at one time. You can set the feed programme or use your own. The number of feeds goes up to 3 of 1.5 l then the number of feeds goes down and volume up. They are fully weaned at 10 weeks i think on their programme. But for me the beauty of the system is it has an alarm system in place so that if a calf doesnt drink its allocation in time then you can call it up and see its drink pattern for last 48 hours. I think it would help identify sick calves sooner and poor drinkers so they can be minded a bit better. It wont replace good management but when thungs are busy i find myself dropping balls here and there and spending enough time checking calves is a big one. They have another one to do 80 calves for about 8k. Interested to hear what people think about it

premier10

Do you reckon it's worth the investment or just plain madeness

5live

Say 100 calves reared. costs E100 a calf. over 10 years 10 a calf.Probably better calves as fed 3 times a day so less chance of nutritional scour by drinking too much. Better chance of seeing sick calf early as it will tell you if he hasnt drank. Less deaths as you have a better chance of treating a sick calf when caught early. You can go for a day or 2 and be fairly confident that someone looking after the calves. I had to go away for 2 days in march and half the calves had scour when i came back. I am on my own on the farm and i reckon if it saved 2 calves a year it would be well on the way to paying for itself

castletrader

I had one of those calf feeders and sold it after 2 years .You spend more time on the computer part inputing numbers every day etc, .I is easier to feed calves on the bucket and teat .

premier10

Is it very difficult to get calves to go to the machine e.g should you rear them on a teat feeder for a few days after taking from the cow? would this be any help or just avoiding the inevitable?

5live

Sales rep at the ploughing said that it takes a few days to get young calves to drink but most sorted after 4 days and most of the rest after a week. I use JFC 10 teat feeders at the minute and pretty much what i find myself. Hunger is a great sauce as they say but the odd one will not drink even if you kissed their behind

whelan1

5live wrote: »

Sales rep at the ploughing said that it takes a few days to get young calves to drink but most sorted after 4 days and most of the rest after a week. I use JFC 10 teat feeders at the minute and pretty much what i find myself. Hunger is a great sauce as they say but the odd one will not drink even if you kissed their behind

god i remember trying to get charolaois calves to drink from a bucket ffs would drive you mad

5live

I would prefer charolais to brown swiss. I still wake up in cold sweats 10 years after the last one weaned. A total nightmare. Maybe i just got the wrong bulls

Man of Kerry

very interested in one for ourselves. spoke with a few at the ploughing but I thought the clearest on what the feeder could do was a fellow kerryman from Killorglin. They were on the Lely stand but I think the feeder is made by some other crowd.I got the impression that it worked best for about 60 calves on two feed boxes but for us that would be plenty. I have to say I thought it was a mighty yoke and would seriously reduce labour at a busy time.

mattthetrasher

anyone buy one since thinking of taking the plunge its about 10k but ya cant do it all

stanflt

mattthetrasher wrote: »

anyone buy one since thinking of taking the plunge its about 10k but ya cant do it all

pure madness-keep your money in your pocket

linebacker52

stanflt wrote: »

pure madness-keep your money in your pocket

why would that be

stanflt

linebacker52 wrote: »

why would that be

from talking to lads who used it

plus was on the winning calve rearing competition herd in the north and he was looking to sell the prize he won

sh1tstirrer

linebacker52 wrote: »

why would that be

One good reason is why most posters on here would like it, is to substitute poor management.

linebacker52

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

One good reason is why most posters on here would like it, is to substitute poor management.

what on earth is that supposed to mean

sh1tstirrer

linebacker52 wrote: »

what on earth is that supposed to mean

:rolleyes:

whelan1

stanflt wrote: »

pure madness-keep your money in your pocket

have to agree ... there is no stand in for the human eye... even with out the automatic feeder its going to take a day or 2 to get the calves to drink then they can work away why pay 10k for the pleasure, i can think of other things to spend my money on, especially if its going to be idle most of the year

F.D

whelan1 wrote: »

have to agree ... there is no stand in for the human eye... even with out the automatic feeder its going to take a day or 2 to get the calves to drink then they can work away why pay 10k for the pleasure, i can think of other things to spend my money on, especially if its going to be idle most of the year

That is the problem with most farmers is they assume automatic machinery is going to replace them! or that they just set it up and come back when the calves are reared in fact the whole object of it is to free up your time to really keep an eye on your animals and record performance, i have not got one of these but if i could afford one i think i would take the plunge, We bucket fed calves morning and evening and working full time, and to be fair for the time you spend making up the mix and throwing it into them you dont really get to spend enough time looking at them until the evenings, so in our senario we would be better spending the time we loose making up the feed walking through them morning and evening, plus we could manage more calves. for a dairy farmer i suppose the time inbetween rows could be spent feeding a batch at a time so it wouldnt be as benifical

bbam

We bucket feed, have been doing so for a few years and with a half decent setup you can feed an awful lot of calves in 30 minutes in the morning... that would include looking at them..
Feeding time is a great time to spot any problem calves.....

It's hard to see the €10K payback from a feeding system, how many calves do you think would be required to justify the spend?..

5live

linebacker52 wrote: »

what on earth is that supposed to mean

I think the answer may be found in the name;)

jeff greene

Don't have one, but lust for one:rolleyes: know two farmers that are delighted with them, alot of money though, I guess you could say a luxury but same could be said for many things depending on your point of view.

5live

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

One good reason is why most posters on here would like it, is to substitute poor management.

Yer man Buckley in Banteer wont be happy with you when he reads that. He does try to keep his deficiencies under wraps so he had an open day to talk about all his 'deficiencies', and there were many:rolleyes:

mattthetrasher

the reason i would like to buy one is not poor management as an oodd a hole might say but because i milk near enough to 100 cows on my own there is a lot of jobs to do and i want to give young stock more time also i have a wife and family who id like to see every so often if posters cant post something helpful or genuine i wish they would just shag off

PMU

dont forget the cost of the shed to house 100 calves and the machine.this year i reared 25 heifer calves on a mobile teat feeder in an outside yard with loose house access.very easy to see the sick ones,they will be slow to come drinking. one farmer i know rears 150 heifer calves each spring in three batches in three different paddocks.

John_F

5live wrote: »

Yer man Buckley in Banteer wont be happy with you when he reads that. He does try to keep his deficiencies under wraps so he had an open day to talk about all his 'deficiencies', and there were many:rolleyes:

just read abit on the ploughing section in the journal about this fella, what exactly was the open day trying to achieve... show off all his gadgets?? he must have a fair ball of cash spent with new parlour, rapid exit with feeding, volac calf feeder, moo monitors

5live

John_F wrote: »

just read abit on the ploughing section in the journal about this fella, what exactly was the open day trying to achieve... show off all his gadgets?? he must have a fair ball of cash spent with new parlour, rapid exit with feeding, volac calf feeder, moo monitors

Horses for courses. I meant to go but didnt in the end. I had no interest in the rest of the stuff, just wanted a look at the feeders and if they would fit in with what i had in mind. In fairness though, talking to a neighbour who did go, he seemed to have a fairly labour efficient set up.
Was the price worth it? He obviously thought so. Not sure it would work everywhere

sh1tstirrer

5live wrote: »

linebacker52 wrote: »

what on earth is that supposed to mean

I think the answer may be found in the name;)

Another man that doesn't understand plain English and the best come back he can think of is the username one.

5live

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Another man that doesn't understand plain English and the best come back he can think of is the username one.

Well,IMO, that was just what that post was doing. Not being cryptic or sly or sarcastic. Just posting to look for a reaction;).

Quite honestly, i dont understand why someone would post if they had nothing constructive or informative to offer. If you have an accusation to make, go ahead and make it. We are all (mostly) adults and as such accept criticism and also agree to disagree where both sides are entrenched in their own ideals. Fair enough.

If you have an opinion on why any poster should or should not buy a calf feeder or even discuss the buying of one then go ahead and put it out there in all its blaze of glory. We await with bated breath

But tbh, i found your comment snide and disrespectful to those of us looking at options for our business in the future. Obviously you are a superb farmer with no deficiencies but the rest of us mere mortals, most definately including myself, seek ways to improve our productivity. Please forgive us for bothering your celestial eminance with such trifles as our own mundane concerns

whelan1

5live wrote: »

Well,IMO, that was just what that post was doing. Not being cryptic or sly or sarcastic. Just posting to look for a reaction;).

Quite honestly, i dont understand why someone would post if they had nothing constructive or informative to offer. If you have an accusation to make, go ahead and make it. We are all (mostly) adults and as such accept criticism and also agree to disagree where both sides are entrenched in their own ideals. Fair enough.

If you have an opinion on why any poster should or should not buy a calf feeder or even discuss the buying of one then go ahead and put it out there in all its blaze of glory. We await with bated breath

But tbh, i found your comment snide and disrespectful to those of us looking at options for our business in the future. Obviously you are a superb farmer with no deficiencies but the rest of us mere mortals, most definately including myself, seek ways to improve our productivity. Please forgive us for bothering your celestial eminance with such trifles as our own mundane concerns

couldn't have said it better myself

linebacker52

5live wrote: »

Well,IMO, that was just what that post was doing. Not being cryptic or sly or sarcastic. Just posting to look for a reaction;).

Quite honestly, i dont understand why someone would post if they had nothing constructive or informative to offer. If you have an accusation to make, go ahead and make it. We are all (mostly) adults and as such accept criticism and also agree to disagree where both sides are entrenched in their own ideals. Fair enough.

If you have an opinion on why any poster should or should not buy a calf feeder or even discuss the buying of one then go ahead and put it out there in all its blaze of glory. We await with bated breath

But tbh, i found your comment snide and disrespectful to those of us looking at options for our business in the future. Obviously you are a superb farmer with no deficiencies but the rest of us mere mortals, most definately including myself, seek ways to improve our productivity. Please forgive us for bothering your celestial eminance with such trifles as our own mundane concerns

well said 5live

mattthetrasher

5live your spot on there and the fact that most of us are adults could be his excuse some sort of tantrum i suspect:D

Hugh 2

Been one hell of a spring resulting in being unable to get calves outdoors .
This resulted in overcrowded calf houses.
I am going to get rid of timber slats for next year and re design calf housing.
I am keen to find out more about these feeders and would like to set up house that would be suitable.

In my opinion the housing has to be right first .
Has anyone here any more info or bought one since the last postings here ( over a year ago)

Thanks
Regards
Hugh

DoonallyNew

Been working with a DeLaval CF150 for the last 4 years now and very happy with it. Rearing 30 replacements a year on it so as it stands it cost me ~€40 a calf so far and I'd hope to get another 3/4 years out of it. Fairly low tech, no conc feeder, calf fed in 3 allocations, shows up calves which haven't drank entire allocation. Think you can use it to feed 100 on the 1 computer but have to add extra feed points.
Calves go on to it @ ~1week coming off teat buckets so push them in 1-2 times and they're flyin themselves. Feedin whole milk through it. Big labour saving. Most important thing to rem is it can't make up for bad management, you have to have your system right for it to work for you.

Hugh 2

DoonallyNew wrote: »

you have to have your system right for it to work for you.

I would say that you are right there .
My system was calves out on trailed feeder asap.
But crap spring(and I am being polite as it was F*****g awfull and still is as the calves grass has been long hoovered up by the hungry cows) anyways this meant no going out then overloaded houses.
(Ps Vets just took a Smalls-berg calf out of a cow so crappy spring might be worse than I thought :eek: thankfully nearly finished with calving )

I am heading up to the Lely openday in Thurless on Friday mainly to see the calf feeding system and housing setup.

Anyway DoonallyNew thanks for the reply I would have replied earlier but I must have notification settings wrong.

delaval

Hugh 2 wrote: »

I would say that you are right there .
My system was calves out on trailed feeder asap.
But crap spring(and I am being polite as it was F*****g awfull and still is as the calves grass has been long hoovered up by the hungry cows) anyways this meant no going out then overloaded houses.
(Ps Vets just took a Smalls-berg calf out of a cow so crappy spring might be worse than I thought :eek: thankfully nearly finished with calving )

I am heading up to the Lely openday in Thurless on Friday mainly to see the calf feeding system and housing setup.

Anyway DoonallyNew thanks for the reply I would have replied earlier but I must have notification settings wrong.

Where is open day in Thurles and what time? I would be very interested

Hugh 2

Friday 19th April 12 noon till 4pm

Adrian and Ann Power
Gurrane
Latteragh
Nenagh (Ooops just as well I checked I thought it was near Thurless twice the journey for me )
Co.Tipperary

They have Lely Astronaut A4 milking robot
Lely Calm feeder
Lely Discovery barn feeder

Large page add on last weeks farmers journal (red cany miss it)

Hugh 2

Re last post
On reflection I think the add on the journal was for newly onened Lely centre
I had phoned about some info on the Calm feeder and was told about the open day.
I got the address from a invitation that Lely sent me.
I think anyone who ever made an inquiry got one of these invitations by post.

Anybody else going.?

delaval

Hugh 2 wrote: »

Re last post
On reflection I think the add on the journal was for newly onened Lely centre
I had phoned about some info on the Calm feeder and was told about the open day.
I got the address from a invitation that Lely sent me.
I think anyone who ever made an inquiry got one of these invitations by post.

Anybody else going.?

I hope to go. We are going away for wend to get recharged before AI and we hope to call

Hugh 2

delaval wrote: »

I hope to go. We are going away for wend to get recharged before AI and we hope to call

Lely put up a good show today - a great chance to get to see 2 robots .plus of course the lely Calm feeder.
(Got to talk about a good few Calm users - and usefully the Kerry Cork Limerick rep who usefully was designing farm housing before getting involved with Lely (So hope to arrange to see a few "good" houses for inspiration)

Getting there was a change and as they say a change is as good as a break.Unless grass growth gets to more normal it might be the only break I get for a while,

Hugh 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEKmVPHp1RA


For those that were not there here is a video from that farm where the open day was held.

rathbeg

hi lads I,m new to this but i am interested in an auto calf feeder and wondering how ye got on ? did you buy ? did you not buy ?if you bought how are you getting on and so on . I know all the posts I say were 2009 and 2010 and feeders have moved on a bit as have numbers but still would like to know

F.D

Bought a forster technik one various companies use the same one just put different logos on it
we put it in an existing shed without to much modification which works OK but ideally you would want to have it set up like some of the brochures or videos you see with loads of room and on slats or a concrete area that can be washed down
ours are coming off the straw into it so it tends to get mucky in that area, we keep topping up with straw to keep it clean, you need to make sure the water supply is frost proof
the handset tells you who has not fed, but you still need to keep walking through them and making sure there Ok, we do this while bedding every day and topping up meal twice a day
training is easy enough, once there hungry.
there will be one or two that will refuse to drink if you have bought bucket fed calves after a few days they give in and drink
It is expensive to buy, but no regrets, there is never any bawling when we walk into the shed because there all full and content
The limit is about 50 calves depending on age and weaning

Hugh 2

Bought the Urban U40 feeds whole milk and or milk replacer.(you can vary the % of each depending on how much waste milk you have)
I was going to build calf shed but just built walls and shelter with large square bales in covered silage pit and adjacent cubicle house - just knock down a few leaves of straw each time bedding was needed.
I was told to go powder only as after quota no one will be feeding whole milk.
But I vaccinate the cows for scour and keep putting in beestings and milk from freshly calved onto feeder.
First year was locked up with TB so has 80 calved on two crates (I also rented a second feeder which I setup on outside farm)
I took the oldest 40 and put them on the second feeder - cleaned out the shed disinfected the house put in more baled and started putting in the next young calves as they were born.
Had no scour the first year but lost a few calves from what I think was playing (ran into walls)
I thought I would be using machine for just a few months but it is out there now still feeding a few late stragglers.

The rented machine used collars which are expensive but the new one reads EID tags the cost just 1 euro each more than the standard Tags that you have to order for your calves..

I looked at the foster machines but in my opinion I think there is a hell of a lot more to the Urban - it washed itself including the lines to the teats twice a day automatically by itself and a calf never has to drink cold milk to get warm milk -

RightTurnClyde

Hugh 2 wrote: »

Bought the Urban U40 feeds whole milk and or milk replacer.(you can vary the % of each depending on how much waste milk you have)
I was going to build calf shed but just built walls and shelter with large square bales in covered silage pit and adjacent cubicle house - just knock down a few leaves of straw each time bedding was needed.
I was told to go powder only as after quota no one will be feeding whole milk.
But I vaccinate the cows for scour and keep putting in beestings and milk from freshly calved onto feeder.
First year was locked up with TB so has 80 calved on two crates (I also rented a second feeder which I setup on outside farm)
I took the oldest 40 and put them on the second feeder - cleaned out the shed disinfected the house put in more baled and started putting in the next young calves as they were born.
Had no scour the first year but lost a few calves from what I think was playing (ran into walls)
I thought I would be using machine for just a few months but it is out there now still feeding a few late stragglers.

The rented machine used collars which are expensive but the new one reads EID tags the cost just 1 euro each more than the standard ones that you have to order for your calves..

I looked at the foster machines but in my opinion I think there is a hell of a lot more to the Urban - it washed itself including the lines to the teats twice a day automatically by itself and a calf never has to drink cold milk to get warm milk -

Hugh, who's the dealer for the urban. I've priced the Forster/ Lely. Was the urban the same money as the Forster

Hugh 2

Volac

They are agents for both the Urban and a Foster machine

http://volac.ie/agriculture/our-product-range/feeding-equipment/volac-computerised-feeders

RightTurnClyde

Hugh 2 wrote: »

Volac

They are agents for both the Urban and a Foster machine

http://volac.ie/agriculture/our-product-range/feeding-equipment/volac-computerised-feeders

Thanks Hugh, they provide a good backup?

Ruxin

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Thanks Hugh, they provide a good backup?

Yea they do always have someone on the end of a phone put one in this year no problems with them so far.

Hugh 2

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Thanks Hugh, they provide a great good backup?

Bit of a learning curve entering tag no's into machine but I find it simple now (EID tags come with a chip whose 16 or so digit no bears no resemblance to the no on the tag (eg tag IE35 60548 01254 could have a no like 000120068004573
on it so you need to have printout or a list on your phone with you when entering in calves.
When I got it first I was putting straight beestings into it but it would need extra extra cleaning (not recommended to put pure beestings into it) but diluted with 2nd and third milking's it went fine (milk that is taken out cold from the bulk milk tank works best my fresh milk and beestings was taken from spout and was at ambient temperature)

I had no real problems with machine it gets serviced each spring and the sales man would call in a few times a year to see how you were getting on (I would say he was checking to see if the machine was calibrated properly etc)

The fact that they were contactable on the phone when you had a question was what made it easy to learn.