Once a day feeding calves

christmasdiane

Im wondering how much. I will give to calves who are going onto once a day feeding. They are 5 to 6 weeks old and are currently drinking 6 litres a day from gate teat feeder.Its whole milk they are getting with added acidifier

Zaph

Moved from Forum Requests

Base price

Are you giving them crunch/pencils?
If so then I would have them on OAD at 3 litres/hd. I know dairy farmers that have their heifer replacements on OAD at 10 days old.
We only rear bull calves here and I aim to have them on OAD at leat 3 weeks old although it depends on the individual calf. All our calves have ad lib access to a calf crunch.

CloughCasey1

Base price wrote: »

Are you giving them crunch/pencils?
If so then I would have them on OAD at 3 litres/hd. I know dairy farmers that have their heifer replacements on OAD at 10 days old.
We only rear bull calves here and I aim to have them on OAD at leat 3 weeks old although it depends on the individual calf. All our calves have ad lib access to a calf crunch.

+1

Any more than 3ltrs OAD and they will take longer to eat the crunch. It's a balancing act of getting them eating 1.5kg a day crunch without over pushing them with meal (which can sicken them) so that by 10wks they are more reliant on the meal than milk which makes weaning easier.

mahoney_j

Start on 600 gramms in 3 ltrs ,build up to 750/800 in 3 .keep fresh straw ,water and hi protein but/ration in front of them at all times .calves here have totally outperformed calves on twice daily whole milk since changing to powder and oad

RightTurnClyde

mahoney_j wrote: »

Start on 600 gramms in 3 ltrs ,build up to 750/800 in 3 .keep fresh straw ,water and hi protein but/ration in front of them at all times .calves here have totally outperformed calves on twice daily whole milk since changing to powder and oad

MJ, what powder are you using. Shine OAD ?

mahoney_j

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

MJ, what powder are you using. Shine OAD ?

Correct and right

mahoney_j

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

MJ, what powder are you using. Shine OAD ?

Correct and right

christmasdiane

mahoney_j wrote: »

Correct and right

How much of the shine powder would i mix with milk for oad and what price is it ? Calves are eating meals and straw well at moment

boggerman1

Once a day here for past few yrs.by day 21 they are getting 3 litres of water mixed with 600/700 grams of powder.we find that giving the calves the meal first thing in the morning before milking works ,that they have a lot of it eaten before they get the milk.wouldn't go back to twice a day feeding now

Panch18

Feeding milk on OAD here to the replacement heifers once they hit 3 weeks

About 7 litres a day

mahoney_j

christmasdiane wrote: »

How much of the shine powder would i mix with milk for oad and what price is it ? Calves are eating meals and straw well at moment

As above start on 600 gramms in 3 ltrs and up over a week to 750/800 in 3 .i bought a pallet for 43 euro a bag with 3 bags foc

visatorro

Can you feed whole milk OAD?

Panch18

visatorro wrote: »

Can you feed whole milk OAD?

You can and we do

caseman

Panch18 wrote: »

You can and we do

At what age do you start, and what level do you feed it at.

C4d78

OAD just before 3 weeks. Almost 6L whole milk. Find they eat a lot more meal and thrive better as a result

larrymiller

For lads buying calves in the Mart do yee go straight into once a day or twice a day for a week or so and then once?

CloughCasey1

larrymiller wrote: »

For lads buying calves in the Mart do yee go straight into once a day or twice a day for a week or so and then once?

Depending on age anything over 4wks id chance OAD. Problem is some of the older calves would have got 3ltrs morning and evening and no crunch so could go back alot with OAD and not picking on meal. That's another reason why mart is a lottery. At least if you buy off farm you know what they were being fed.

Reggie.

larrymiller wrote: »

For lads buying calves in the Mart do yee go straight into once a day or twice a day for a week or so and then once?

Started off with my ones on twice a day but starting getting milk scour so changed to OAD and most have cleared up now

Carrigogunnell

larrymiller wrote: »

For lads buying calves in the Mart do yee go straight into once a day or twice a day for a week or so and then once?

More than likely there are coming off whole milk so I be incline to give them say 2/3 of the recommended powder for the first 2 days and gradually up it to full amount after that depends wat age if there 3 weeks buying them I would say 10 days after they arrive they would want to be well settled before you do oad I think it's a bit easier to spot a sick calf when your feeding them twice a day.

larrymiller

Reggie. wrote: »

Started off with my ones on twice a day but starting getting milk scour so changed to OAD and most have cleared up now

How much powder am did you feed when you went into once a day reggie?

Reggie.

larrymiller wrote: »

How much powder am did you feed when you went into once a day reggie?

Giving them 750g with 2250ml of water