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Automatic Calf feeders

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Comments

  • #92
    Wildsurfer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭Wildsurfer


    hedgebury wrote: »
    theres a calf milk heater called heatwave and you can have all the benefits of an automatic feeder for something like 4-500 euro
    Neat gadget alright but a long ways off all the benefits of an auto feeder especially for bigger numbers


  • #93
    Hugh 2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 400 ✭✭Hugh 2


    hedgebury wrote: »
    theres a calf milk heater called heatwave and you can have all the benefits of an automatic feeder for something like 4-500 euro

    Took a look at heatwave video

    Bit of an overstatement to compare it to automatic feeder that can read tags monitor and measure what they drink (and alerts you to who misses a feed or are not drinking their allocation) build up what they get per day up to a certain amount and wean them off over a certain amount of days

    Sure it costs less Had a home made version of that 30 years ago which warmed the milk and worked ok before getting a liscarroll that did the same thing.


  • #94
    Hugh 2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 400 ✭✭Hugh 2


    Wildsurfer wrote: »
    Just wondering if anyone has experience of the lely calm auto feeder. I have got a price of 8k+vat(can be reclaimed) for powder only model with two feed stations without collars as I will get EID tags. Might get a couple of collars in case I lose a tag or haven't a calf tagged. With 0% finance over 3 years seems a good option to reduce the mayhem this spring! Seems the volac Urban is a more popular machine around here so if anyone has any info on lely I'd appreciate it. I have a pen 32'x20' where feeder will be positioned. Prob bucket feed calves for a week and then put them on feeder. Pen should hold about 55 calves.

    I was going to buy one of them (powder only Lely feeders ) ( there was only a few years of quota left at this stage)

    I would recommend you consider the duel feeding type Milk or powder or a combination of each.

    If you vaccinate cows for scour the calf can keep getting antibodies from the calf for up to 20 or so days .

    First milking is kept for new born calves cows milk doesn't enter the tank till after it passes the paddle test - this could amount to a lot of milk that the feeder can handle (if very beestings like it may need to be diluted)

    Regarding bucket feeding I use hand held bottles for feeding till they go onto feeder can be a pain but when you stand at the crate and they are hungry they come immediately to the crate.

    I might be mistaken but I think any of these feeders are Eid Tag or Collar only they wont read both.
    So order your EID tags and you can get a few EID button tags that can be cut off and re used - I used a few of these to use up some of my old non EID tags (especially on bull calves that I was selling)

    Ps I went for URBAN but I found no LELY ( Förster-Technik ) user unhappy with their machine


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