milk bar feeders

Greengrass1

Looking to buy the compartment milk feeders.
Have two 10 teat bilk bars here already.
What ones are ye using and how do you like then?
I like the wydale ones but there a big price

td5man

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Looking to buy the compartment milk feeders.
Have two 10 teat bilk bars here already.
What ones are ye using and how do you like then?
I like the wydale ones but there a big price

Biggest problem with them is a slow drinker can be bullied off it.

Greengrass1

td5man wrote: »

Biggest problem with them is a slow drinker can be bullied off it.

I stay with them so that won't be a problem

Timmaay

td5man wrote: »

Biggest problem with them is a slow drinker can be bullied off it.

Never bothered with a compartment one here, just use a 10 teat batch one, and group calves by size in pens of 8 or 9 calves, always a spare teat that way. Like GG always keep an eye on calves their 1st few days, after that any bullying will become obvious very quickly. I usually have the bottle with a teat if any calf is looking empty after feeding and needs a top up.

visatorro

calves were always bucket fed here. so I bought a few jfc ten teat feeders, found them a good job after a days training calves. and once you keep them clean. I haven't been on farm in last month, so went up yesterday for an hour or so. two feeders on the ground being used as troughs, one for milk the other for meal. I'm wasting my time

Timmaay

Another reason I like the feeders without compartments, very easy to empty and clean!

Reggie.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I stay with them so that won't be a problem

I'm the same

Buford T. Justice XIX

visatorro wrote: »

calves were always bucket fed here. so I bought a few jfc ten teat feeders, found them a good job after a days training calves. and once you keep them clean. I haven't been on farm in last month, so went up yesterday for an hour or so. two feeders on the ground being used as troughs, one for milk the other for meal. I'm wasting my time

I remember those days well.

Keep at it, though. The benefits outweigh the pain it takes to get there.

keep going

I think compartment feeders are worse for bullying as the calf is pushed off earlier when the greedy calf has drank theirs and there is no milk in the spare one that he enevitably sucks whereas they all finish close together with the one container

frazzledhome

keep going wrote: »

I think compartment feeders are worse for bullying as the calf is pushed off earlier when the greedy calf has drank theirs and there is no milk in the spare one that he enevitably sucks whereas they all finish close together with the one container

+1
GG got one here if your interested

Base price

We feed and rear a few bull calves most years.
We use JFC (non compartment) 10 teat feeders with peach teats on milk replacer.
We batch calves into groups of 8 or 9 initially and pull off any weak feeders into a another batch irrespective of size. We continually re batch calves according to appetite in the first 2 to 3 weeks after arriving here.
The one thing that we make sure to do is to vaccinate them on arrival with Rispoval intranasal.
Some farmers that we collect calves from use compartmental feeders whilst others use straight feeders and there seems to be feck all difference in performance in those early days.
Most important is to get the calves eating meal asap and I am referring to heifer calves, as I presume the cull bulls have gone off farm.
Speaking to progressive dairy farmers and looking at their set ups, yoghurt milk is the way to go OAD.
However I don't agree with calves been on OAD and turfed out into paddocks at 10 days old on OAD, with meal and some hay.
I have seen some paddock teat milk feeders that can accommodate 20 to 50 calves and they are putrid, you could smell them across the yard. When you see them, the milk lines are pink in colour.

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

+1
GG got one here if your interested

How much?
I've worked in places with them and I think there a great job.
One job I love is rearing calves so I don't mind staying and stopping the bullies

Reggie.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

How much?
I've worked in places with them and I think there a great job.
One job I love is rearing calves so I don't mind staying and stopping the bullies

+1

RightTurnClyde

Have a 10 compartment milkbar here too...doing nothing. Hate the fcuker. It trains them into bullying. With the open one all teats run dry together... So they never get milk from travelling teat to teat...so they never get the habit. With the compartment one all the bully has to do is get milk from the compartment next door once and theyll be bullying for the rest of their days.
GG, when you have 6 calves in the pen are you going to exactly fill only 6 of the 10 compartments and put the 6 calves on the exact 6 compartments twice a day every day.
2 or 3 individual compartments ....good job
10 compartments ... Balls

Reggie.

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Have a 10 compartment milkbar here too...doing nothing. Hate the fcuker. It trains them into bullying. With the open one all teats run dry together... So they never get milk from travelling teat to teat...so they never get the habit. With the compartment one all the bully has to do is get milk from the compartment next door once and theyll be bullying for the rest of their days.
GG, when you have 6 calves in the pen are you going to exactly fill only 6 of the 10 compartments and put the 6 calves on the exact 6 compartments twice a day every day.
2 or 3 individual compartments ....good job
10 compartments ... Balls

Always have the right amount of compartments per calves. No point as you said having 6 calves feeding off a ten teat feeder. The odd time is ok but not for weeks on end

Greengrass1

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Have a 10 compartment milkbar here too...doing nothing. Hate the fcuker. It trains them into bullying. With the open one all teats run dry together... So they never get milk from travelling teat to teat...so they never get the habit. With the compartment one all the bully has to do is get milk from the compartment next door once and theyll be bullying for the rest of their days.
GG, when you have 6 calves in the pen are you going to exactly fill only 6 of the 10 compartments and put the 6 calves on the exact 6 compartments twice a day every day.
2 or 3 individual compartments ....good job
10 compartments ... Balls

My plan was to only have heifers in main shed and bull calves not let near it.
Shed should hold 45 calves when we rearage it.(that's next yrs job)
It'll take me longer to put a group of heifers together then so pushing a slow drinker into younger group will be hard.
What you said about only having 5/6 in a pen with the compartment feeder is messy alright
I could buy ones that come in 5 because when we rearrange shed there will be 15 calves to a pen

Milked out

Have 2 5 teat compartment ones a 10 teat compartment and a 10 teat pen one. The 5 teat ones are the grey milk bars and are used a good bit when yonder calves are in smaller groups and because the compartments are a good size the 10 teat compartment one is a blue jfc one that we never use as compartments are too small if less than 10 on it and 5 he moulding that holds it on the gate is a balls to clean out. The open 10 teat one is used for groups of 9 and is much handier. The problem with putting 2 feeders in one pen is when they get strong it's awkward putting them in

Greengrass1

See were in this glanbia heifer rearing program here and the lad that's in charge of it cane back with suggestions of what changes we could make.
One was feed 10 % body weight in beestings straight away.
Take calf from cow after calf is licked and starting to get up
And 3 feed 7l milk instead of 5l to calves from ten days old.

He weighed the autumn born calves with us then and the biggest calf was 170kg and a calf 4 days younger was 140kg and he was putting 15/20kg of that lost weight down to other heifer being a stronger drinker as a calf

mahoney_j

LAds think yer complicating this calf rearing business too much.im reading about putting calves under red lights,feeding calves 10% body weight beaastings ,individual compartment feeders etc etc.keep it simple.make sure cows get adequate dry cow minerals pre calving,once calve is dropped iodine on navel and let cow lick her dry,2.5/3 ltrs beaastings within first half hour/3/4 hour.follow up with more beaastings whenever calf wants it.
The start is most important for a calf,here calves go to pens of 3 first and fed through 3 teat jfc feeder andvthen to pens of 10 with 10 teat feeder.dry bed,airy shed,fresh straw and meal to eat and 3 ltrs water with 700 gramnes powder oad from day 10 built up to 750 gramnes.feed is consistent as is feed time ,12 o clock daily.

RightTurnClyde

mahoney_j wrote: »

LAds think yer complicating this calf rearing business too much.im reading about putting calves under red lights,feeding calves 10% body weight beaastings ,individual compartment feeders etc etc.keep it simple.make sure cows get adequate dry cow minerals pre calving,once calve is dropped iodine on navel and let cow lick her dry,2.5/3 ltrs beaastings within first half hour/3/4 hour.follow up with more beaastings whenever calf wants it.
The start is most important for a calf,here calves go to pens of 3 first and fed through 3 teat jfc feeder andvthen to pens of 10 with 10 teat feeder.dry bed,airy shed,fresh straw and meal to eat and 3 ltrs water with 700 gramnes powder oad from day 10 built up to 750 gramnes.feed is consistent as is feed time ,12 o clock daily.

Exactly, if you have a system that works, stick with it. And keep it simple . They're not rocket science. Get them onto the ground healthy and use some common sense after that. There's lads sitting at desks that never fed a calf in they're lives coming up with these lovely round figures putting farmers under pressure to hit these targets. Use common sense, if the system works stay with it. If you had a problem last year or were not happy with some part of it, address the problem. Simples

Greengrass1

http://stradballyfarmservices.com/milk-flow/compartment-calf-feeeders/
Bought the ten teat compartment one of these today

Reggie.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

http://stradballyfarmservices.com/milk-flow/compartment-calf-feeeders/
Bought the ten teat compartment one of these today

Have a 6 teat one here myself. Each compartment is roughly 2.5 lt if I remember rightly

Greengrass1

Reggie. wrote: »

Have a 6 teat one here myself. Each compartment is roughly 2.5 lt if I remember rightly

Good yoke?
At least the slower calves will get 5 l in the day

Reggie.

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Good yoke?
At least the slower calves will get 5 l in the day

Yeah if you watch over them then every calf will get the 2.5 lts

Base price

Agree with you Reggie, you have got to stand and watch them drinking as sometimes you may get a few bullies especially around a 10 teat feeder.

Greengrass1

Base price wrote: »

Agree with you Reggie, you have got to stand and watch them drinking as sometimes you may get a few bullies especially around a 10 teat feeder.

I'll be staying with them alright.
Ye can't rear calves if ye just land in the milk and walk off