Feeding Calves.

poor farmer

I rear about 100 calves every year ,all born on the farm.I try and give them whole milk for the first 3 weeks and then switch to replacer.
the calves are born from feb 1st till early april. The calves are in tens. 40 in one shed and the rest around the yard in older sheds in tens.
At the minute I have 80 and there is a lot of carrying. I am feeding 3l per feed.
I try and get them out at 8 weeks and put them on once a day. I always feed twice a day inside as I like to see them .
I mix the powder in buckets with a battery drill and a paint mixer.

Any suggestions as to reduce the labour .
I would like to rear more but I would need more/better housing and a better feeding system. Thank you.

visatorro

Seen timmaay with a barrell on a trolley, I think he has a quad aswell so maybe pulls it around with that. You can get a twelve volt pump then to pour out milk.

I'm sure there's some breed of a machine that will both mix and transport the milk. Very hard to reduce labour without spending a few pound but money well spent if it works.

howdee

Do you have a loader, or even a way of lifting an ibc tank? I use an ibc with a hose attachment and go between sheds with the milk. 50 euro for a clean ibc, 1 inch hose fitting is about 15 euro and 20 feet of yellow hose with a on/off on the end will cost around 100 quid all in and it can carry 1000 litres.

poor farmer

visatorro wrote: »

Seen timmaay with a barrell on a trolley, I think he has a quad aswell so maybe pulls it around with that. You can get a twelve volt pump then to pour out milk.

I'm sure there's some breed of a machine that will both mix and transport the milk. Very hard to reduce labour without spending a few pound but money well spent if it works.

THAT'S the type of thing I was thinking of. Something that would mix a bag of replacer and pump out the milk. But it would have to be easy to move/push between sheds. I don't mind spending for something suitable.

mf240

http://jfcagri.com/cattle/milk-karts/

howdee

Do you have a loader, or even a way of lifting an ibc tank? I use an ibc with a hose attachment and go between sheds with the milk. 50 euro for a clean ibc, 1 inch hose fitting is about 15 euro and 20 feet of yellow hose with a on/off on the end will cost around 100 quid all in and it can carry 1000 litres.

larrymiller

How do you heat the water?

visatorro

howdee wrote: »

Do you have a loader, or even a way of lifting an ibc tank? I use an ibc with a hose attachment and go between sheds with the milk. 50 euro for a clean ibc, 1 inch hose fitting is about 15 euro and 20 feet of yellow hose with a on/off on the end will cost around 100 quid all in and it can carry 1000 litres.

That's cheap and cheerful.

ganmo

how about putting them on oad from when ya take them off whole milk?

Base price

We rear a few calves every year and I would recommend this
http://www.wydaleproducts.co.uk/products/prod/8/MobileMilkMixer
We have one for the last 8 years and have no problems with it.
Depending on calf prices we rear between 100 and 300 annually.
*We have two yards and calves are reared mostly old type sheds in pens of 9/18 or 27. We don't put them in batches of 10 and prefer to leave an extra teat on 10 teat feeders.

simx

Have a blue barrel with a tap here just put in bucket outside door of parlour at milking time

pms7

Many of ye gone the the computer calf feeder route? Lot of them sold this year. About ten grand. Everyone very happy with them. If milking 100 cows on your own, if saves hour a day for 3 mths, at €10/hr and lasts ten years, 10k doesn't sound so outrageous......?
Never thought I'd say it, but would consider it if cow numbers crept up

poor farmer

Base price wrote: »

We rear a few calves every year and I would recommend this
http://www.wydaleproducts.co.uk/products/prod/8/MobileMilkMixer
We have one for the last 8 years and have no problems with it.
Depending on calf prices we rear between 100 and 300 annually.
*We have two yards and calves are reared mostly old type sheds in pens of 9/18 or 27. We don't put them in batches of 10 and prefer to leave an extra teat on 10 teat feeders.

Ok I bought a wydale mixer from w.w. cattle co. Great yoke very happy with it ,feeding all calves with two fills. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

milkprofit

poor farmer wrote: »

Ok I bought a wydale mixer from w.w. cattle co. Great yoke very happy with it ,feeding all calves with two fills. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Put on oad at 3 wk
U don't need to feed milk to look st calves

CloughCasey1

milkprofit wrote: »

Put on oad at 3 wk
U don't need to feed milk to look st calves

That's for sure ya don't...but if ya have a sick one in a group of 10 plus the handiest way of noticing is by them not sucking!! Especially if your only after buying them in.

eddiek

does anyone on here buy dairy calves to bucket rear at this time of year? how do ye get on with them ? they are a bit cheaper to buy than in spring but costlier to rear. not much fresh grass when reared tho

Sam Kade

They would be a lot stronger by spring time and would go to grass earlier and thrive well during their first grazing season. That would more than offset the higher rearing cost.

whelan2

eddiek wrote: »

does anyone on here buy dairy calves to bucket rear at this time of year? how do ye get on with them ? they are a bit cheaper to buy than in spring but costlier to rear. not much fresh grass when reared tho

I think its a great idea- says she who is bringing calves to the mart today

_Brian

whelan2 wrote: »

I think its a great idea- says she who is bringing calves to the mart today

Let us know how you get on.

We did it a few years ago. TBH it's swings and roundabouts. Yea there is the problem of having to winter them just as they are weaned. But in the spring they will be stronger and better capable to use early turnout to grass.

Sam Kade

_Brian wrote: »

Let us know how you get on.

We did it a few years ago. TBH it's swings and roundabouts. Yea there is the problem of having to winter them just as they are weaned. But in the spring they will be stronger and better capable to use early turnout to grass.

They'll be able to finish off grass with only one main winter.

_Brian

Sam Kade wrote: »

They'll be able to finish off grass with only one main winter.

How would that work, know nothing about finishing at all.
Say calves reared now and turned out in April, would you just graze them summer 17 with no meal, turnout in April '18 when would they finish by ?? AdLib meal at grass or what ??

whelan2

14 calves in sale, 4 of them were mine.
1 fr bull 110
1 fr bull 90
1 fr bull 40 :cool:
1 aa bull 190
very happy with that,got alot more for the fr than I was getting in the yard. All 10-14 days old

Sam Kade

_Brian wrote: »

How would that work, know nothing about finishing at all.
Say calves reared now and turned out in April, would you just graze them summer 17 with no meal, turnout in April '18 when would they finish by ?? AdLib meal at grass or what ??

They'd finish around oct-nov 18 depends on the breed.

ganmo

whelan2 wrote: »

14 calves in sale, 4 of them were mine.
1 fr bull 110
1 fr bull 90
1 fr bull 40 :cool:
1 aa bull 190
very happy with that,got alot more for the fr than I was getting in the yard. All 10-14 days old

was there many for sale?

whelan2

ganmo wrote: »

was there many for sale?

14

ganmo

whelan2 wrote: »

14

sry i thought ya said you brought 14, of them were yours