Calf rearing

Milked out

Currently rear all heifer calves here on whole milk fed fresh twice daily in batches of 9 after milking with meal, water, straw available and wean at 10 weeks or therabouts depending on weight. Bull calves normally sold between 3 and 6 weeks of age, bar this year as we are restricted with tb since last oct. Scour doesn't rear its head unless there is dramatic temp changes, or like this year overcrowding became an issue, on the the current routine. Autumn calves are kept on straw beddin for a few weeks after weaning and then put on slats with rubber and fed the milking cows diet with with extra straw and a kilo of meal.
With milk price being good and no qouta issues I plan to feed milk replacer to the heifer calves this season and whole milk to the bulls, hoping to sell the bull calves at 2-3 wks, hopefully once we clear the next test, to reduce the labour side.
What is the best milk replacer out there and what routines have ye in place to get the best calf performance and time/labour efficiency?? also does the once a day feed achieve the same results as twice a day?

tommy5678

how much milk do you give each calf per day

Sharpshooter82

well i feed my calves 4 litres of milk a day in two feedings. be interested to hear the agruments for once a day feeding as i was thinking of moving to that type of feeding

jersey101

Sharpshooter82 wrote: »

well i feed my calves 4 litres of milk a day in two feedings. be interested to hear the agruments for once a day feeding as i was thinking of moving to that type of feeding

ye can only move to once a day after arond 3 weeks. Cause the calf cant take the big lump of milk in one feed. Thinking of trying that this year. Be able to feed them in the middle of the day

Sharpshooter82

jersey101 wrote: »

ye can only move to once a day after arond 3 weeks. Cause the calf cant take the big lump of milk in one feed. Thinking of trying that this year. Be able to feed them in the middle of the day

yeah same as that as it would save alot of labour

Sam Kade

I had great success feeding shine once a day to calves last spring. It's skim milk based and takes longer to digest than whey based. I never had much success feeding whey based milk replacer.

Sharpshooter82

Sam Kade wrote: »

I had great success feeding shine once a day to calves last spring. It's skim milk based and takes longer to digest than whey based. I never had much success feeding whey based milk replacer.

what size is the bag and price sam

Sam Kade

Sharpshooter82 wrote: »

what size is the bag and price sam

20kg I'm sure, I paid €49/bag.

Sharpshooter82

Sam Kade wrote: »

20kg I'm sure, I paid €49/bag.

yeah i think the bag i had was the same size and about 43 euro

Sam Kade

Sharpshooter82 wrote: »

yeah i think the bag i had was the same size and about 43 euro

Where did you buy it?

Sharpshooter82

Sam Kade wrote: »

Where did you buy it?

it wasnt shine sam it was a different brand. will have to look for that brand heard good things about it before

Sam Kade

Sharpshooter82 wrote: »

it wasnt shine sam it was a different brand. will have to look for that brand heard good things about it before

Glanbia sell shine but they charge over €50/bag I bought of an independent agri store for €49

Sharpshooter82

Sam Kade wrote: »

Glanbia sell shine but they charge over €50/bag I bought of an independent agri store for €49

Will have a sniff around for it as I have to get my calves earlier this rotation, so be shopping in about 4 weeks time

trixi2011

jersey101 wrote: »

ye can only move to once a day after arond 3 weeks. Cause the calf cant take the big lump of milk in one feed. Thinking of trying that this year. Be able to feed them in the middle of the day

Have successfully reared calves on once a day form day one. They would get A stomach tube day one then 3- 4l of good colostrum for a week then up to 5 litres in one feed after the first week. No scour issues and ended up weaning them before a similar group of calves that were feed tad for the first 3 weeks as they seemed to eat more meal.

whelan1

shine is 52.50 with glanbia

bbam

Price per bag is very misleading lads.
You need to work out the price per feed.
There can be a difference from 55 to 80 feeds in a bag but only €3 a difference in the cost of the bag.

Knowing the price per feed also less dairy men decide if feeding fresh milk is cheaper or not.

Sharpshooter82

bbam wrote: »

Price per bag is very misleading lads.
You need to work out the price per feed.
There can be a difference from 55 to 80 feeds in a bag but only €3 a difference in the cost of the bag.

Knowing the price per feed also less dairy men decide if feeding fresh milk is cheaper or not.

i remember getting bags last year and i swear the bags had different weights in them even tho they were all supposed to be 20kg