Automatic calf feeder, advice please?

locky76

Hi folks,
I'm going ploughing next week and I am taking the plunge and buying an automatic calf feeder.
I will only be feeding powdered milk and I'm looking for a unit which can supply two feeding stations.
Can I get the following advice off you please?
1- Who do I need to meet at the ploughing, who sells them?
2- What sort of price can I expect to pay?
3- What credit terms are available? (needless to say I will look for the cash price and then look for the credit at the 11th hour:-))
4- Anything else I need to look out for?
As always thanking you in advance for the usual sound advice.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Snap:)

On the same mission, just looking for buying in 2018.

Volac, Dairymaster and Delaval will all have feeders there I am told.

Backup is the most important thing. If the feeder is broken, it will break your heart having to feed them in batches with nipple feeders. So make sure someone will be available to fix the feeder.

A good cleaning option and also the option for adding medication, so I'm told.

Edit; circa 8k iirc

Sam Kade

Could you feed yogurt milk in an automatic feeder? Something like the old Liscarroll stainless steel feeders.

Dawggone

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Snap:)

On the same mission, just looking for buying in 2018.

Volac, Dairymaster and Delaval will all have feeders there I am told.

Backup is the most important thing. If the feeder is broken, it will break your heart having to feed them in batches with nipple feeders. So make sure someone will be available to fix the feeder.

A good cleaning option and also the option for adding medication, so I'm told.

Edit; circa 8k iirc

+1.
It would be handy if you had the option of piping new milk direct to the feeder, mine doesn't.
Also the option to program that some calves can be ad lib (and to record amount drank per day), and some on specific programmed amounts as per live weight.
Make sure that calves can be using both stations at the same time.
Hard feed stations are also very handy as it gets them eating nuts at a very early age and can be preprogrammed to amount consumed.

Mooooo

I think dairymaster are the Holm&laue brand

Buford T. Justice XIX

Mooooo wrote: »

I think dairymaster are the Holm&laue brand

The Volac one is a Foster technic, I think. They are generally rebadged I think.

I was talking to a lad a while back that had bought a second hand feeder off a farmer that was upgrading. I wonder would that be common to have second hand machines available.

I'll be buying new anyway as I want to rear the heifers on powder and bulls and beef calves on milk so I'll have to get a fairly high spec machine.

cute geoge

As far as i know there is a yearly service /maintenance contract dairymaster is€300 and lely is more .Second hand lely on dondeal for only €2 k for 25 calves ,think they are up to 12k new for 60 calves but tams grant should cover them .

alps

Volac sell 2 types...The Urban and the Foster tecknic..

Have been using the Urban for about 5 seasons now. Uses both milk and powder, but after first season use powder only.

Very realiable but a key stuck down in the keyboard and the only way to fix was to replace the whole keyboard. Also some irrigulatlrity happened in the screen and it had yo be replaced. Both items cost somewhere near 1200...so its something I would ask other users and salesmen about....The price of parts...

Dawggone

alps wrote: »

Volac sell 2 types...The Urban and the Foster tecknic..

Have been using the Urban for about 5 seasons now. Uses both milk and powder, but after first season use powder only.

Very realiable but a key stuck down in the keyboard and the only way to fix was to replace the whole keyboard. Also some irrigulatlrity happened in the screen and it had yo be replaced. Both items cost somewhere near 1200...so its something I would ask other users and salesmen about....The price of parts...

Foster Tecknic here under the DeLaval badge. One breakdown costing <€10 and a helluva lot of calves gone through it. Has been working 24/7/365 for many years.

Johns3650

It something I think would come in handy in our setup.

Anything to consider in relation to calve shed layout or is it just one big loose shed with calves at various stages from baby to weaning all mixed in the one batch?

Base price

Johns3650 wrote: »

It something I think would come in handy in our setup.

Anything to consider in relation to calve shed layout or is it just one big loose shed with calves at various stages from baby to weaning all mixed in the one batch?

No, no, never mix young calves with older ones. Split your shed into pens and keep age batches together. If a weaker one is not thriving then downgrade it into the next younger batch.
I would recommend that you vaccinate all calves.

Base price

locky76 wrote: »

Hi folks,
I'm going ploughing next week and I am taking the plunge and buying an automatic calf feeder.
I will only be feeding powdered milk and I'm looking for a unit which can supply two feeding stations.
Can I get the following advice off you please?
1- Who do I need to meet at the ploughing, who sells them?
2- What sort of price can I expect to pay?
3- What credit terms are available? (needless to say I will look for the cash price and then look for the credit at the 11th hour:-))
4- Anything else I need to look out for?
As always thanking you in advance for the usual sound advice.

OP - how many calves are you rearing?

Icelandicseige

Base price wrote: »

No, no, never mix young calves with older ones. Split your shed into pens and keep age batches together. If a weaker one is not thriving then downgrade it into the next younger batch.
I would recommend that you vaccinate all calves.

What do you vaccinate for Base?

Base price

Icelandicseige wrote: »

What do you vaccinate for Base?

Good point.
Buy in calves here so vaccinate with Rispoval intranasal - RS & Pi3

locky76

Base price wrote: »

OP - how many calves are you rearing?

I'll go with 40 in the spring and I might go again in the autumn depending on how the prices are going. I think the shed will handle 40 easy enough so I'll see if I can up it to 50 for the year after.

Sam Kade

locky76 wrote: »

I'll go with 40 in the spring and I might go again in the autumn depending on how the prices are going. I think the shed will handle 40 easy enough so I'll see if I can up it to 50 for the year after.

Could you justify a computerised feeder for 40 calves?

amacca

I think I could justify it for those numbers over about 8 years (assuming basic service costs, lower mortality and better thrive/less stress on calves) on a cost per head basis

If I'm being totally honest though the main reason I'd be justifying it would be due to the reduced labour......I get fairly sick of bucket/teat feeding larger numbers of calves twice a day and the hours of labour it entails....its puts a real dent in my ability to get other things done around the place.

To the OP, a halfway house I'm considering also might be a milk trolley with heating element.....although if the guts of a thousand is going into that maybe it could be put into the automatic feeder instead.

On a side note how do the manufacturers justify the high cost of the automatic feeders?.......surely the software and hardware has been developed for quite a while and the device excluding collars/scanners and the computer doesn't appear to be much more than a burko with a motor, heating element, valves, servos and some piping attached to a teat surrounded by a calf crush or two

Any chance the price might come down with higher uptake?

The Cuban

Sam Kade wrote: »

Could you justify a computerised feeder for 40 calves?

Unless he`s batch rearing them 40 at a time, I was thinking the same myself for just 40 calves you`d be better off with a cheap water heater and a whisk then use a couple of these

locky76

Sam Kade wrote: »

Could you justify a computerised feeder for 40 calves?

I've crunched the numbers and I think I can.
I work off farm and I am quite busy. The automatic feeder will allow me to keep rearing calves and up my number from 25 at the moment to 40 or 50, this means I'm not paying over the odds for yearling bullocks.
It's Freisan bull calves I tear which I finish as 21 months bullocks, I'm in the heart of the golden vale so there is plenty of raw product. Also once the system is in place I have a fair bit of interest off neighbours to buy 10 month old weanlings.
As I say running the machine a few times a year gets the numbers up also.

Buford T. Justice XIX

amacca wrote: »

I think I could justify it for those numbers over about 8 years (assuming basic service costs, lower mortality and better thrive/less stress on calves) on a cost per head basis

If I'm being totally honest though the main reason I'd be justifying it would be due to the reduced labour......I get fairly sick of bucket/teat feeding larger numbers of calves twice a day and the hours of labour it entails....its puts a real dent in my ability to get other things done around the place.

To the OP, a halfway house I'm considering also might be a milk trolley with heating element.....although if the guts of a thousand is going into that maybe it could be put into the automatic feeder instead.

On a side note how do the manufacturers justify the high cost of the automatic feeders?.......surely the software and hardware has been developed for quite a while and the device excluding collars/scanners and the computer doesn't appear to be much more than a burko with a motor, heating element, valves, servos and some piping attached to a teat surrounded by a calf crush or two

Any chance the price might come down with higher uptake?

They're a bit more complicated than that.:)

They have multiple programs and calves can be switched to different programs. The programs also take calves through different amounts of powder/milk fed and can take calves through a weaning program too. All of that while recording how much each calf drinks, how often they drink and if their speed of feeding changes and flagging any calves off their feed or slow to feed so the farmer can have a look at them and treat them if necessary.

kerry cow

Have 2 delaval here for years not a bother but the odd little thing .Wouldn't touch dairymaster with a 20ft pole .ment to be all trouble and plenty of call outs racking up .But give them that they have a A class callout service and a good invoicing system .

Dawggone

Sam Kade wrote: »

Could you justify a computerised feeder for 40 calves?

I've a fair bit of kit on the farm and the last thing to leave will be the autofeeder.

When tractors replaced horses is the best way to explain it.

Johns3650

Base price wrote: »

No, no, never mix young calves with older ones. Split your shed into pens and keep age batches together. If a weaker one is not thriving then downgrade it into the next younger batch.
I would recommend that you vaccinate all calves.

Yes that's the way we have it done here with the teat feeders. But some calves would nearly be weaned but you still would have calves being born. So how does the feeder if it only has two stations keep the calves separate without going into over kill and having a station for each pen of maybe 8 calves?

I know nothing about the feedes or ever seen them in action and it would be a while before I convince the old man to switch to it if I knew it was the right thing to do!

We're dairy farming but keep calves thro to beef.

Timmaay

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

They're a bit more complicated than that.:)

They have multiple programs and calves can be switched to different programs. The programs also take calves through different amounts of powder/milk fed and can take calves through a weaning program too. All of that while recording how much each calf drinks, how often they drink and if their speed of feeding changes and flagging any calves off their feed or slow to feed so the farmer can have a look at them and treat them if necessary.

It boils down in part to demand and what farmers are willing to pay for one ha, similarly with robotic milkers. Each of the companies who make them know that in general the economics mean a farmer will justify spending the 8k on one once it has a payback in around the 6yrs or so, alongside the reduced labour.

amacca

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

They're a bit more complicated than that.:)

They have multiple programs and calves can be switched to different programs. The programs also take calves through different amounts of powder/milk fed and can take calves through a weaning program too. All of that while recording how much each calf drinks, how often they drink and if their speed of feeding changes and flagging any calves off their feed or slow to feed so the farmer can have a look at them and treat them if necessary.

Isn't all of that down to the computerised bit I was excluding though....surely the software only requires minor tweaking and updating at this stage now that the basic functions have been around and tested for years

Not saying Id like to design the interface and write code myself though! or indeed think I'd be up to it, I suppose its probably worth it to me on the basis of labour reduction but 8-10k seems like a lot of euros for what your getting even if the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!

White Clover

locky76 wrote: »

I've crunched the numbers and I think I can.
I work off farm and I am quite busy. The automatic feeder will allow me to keep rearing calves and up my number from 25 at the moment to 40 or 50, this means I'm not paying over the odds for yearling bullocks.
It's Freisan bull calves I tear which I finish as 21 months bullocks, I'm in the heart of the golden vale so there is plenty of raw product. Also once the system is in place I have a fair bit of interest off neighbours to buy 10 month old weanlings.
As I say running the machine a few times a year gets the numbers up also.

If you don't mind Locky, what kind of weights are you achieving at 21 months and what's your system from buying in through to killing?

ag guy

Dairymaster do a good feeder, and usually have one at ploughing

I installed one 3 years ago and no bothers with it so far

The reason I went with them at the time was they designed the calf shed as part of the price,and they seemed to have the best knowledge of what was needed for my set up

The feeder has 2 mixing bowls so calves don't have to wait, as far as I remember the other feeders only have 1 mixing bowl

locky76

White Clover wrote: »

If you don't mind Locky, what kind of weights are you achieving at 21 months and what's your system from buying in through to killing?

Check out this thread:
http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057499199/1

RightTurnClyde

Bought an Urban off Volac last year, massive labour saving with it.
I'm sorry I didn't get one that could take both milk and powder so I'm going to get the milk add on put onto it for this year.
The urban has 1 mixing bowl but has receivers on each station so there's no calf waiting for milk, very very important when training a lot of calves.
If feeding more than 80 calves on it get the powder extension on it, otherwise you'll easily run out of powder when they're drinking big volumes. Happened me once last year, annoying to see 100 calves queued up for 3 stations bawling.
Another thing I'm going to change for this year is that, I'm going to put pig slats under the stations and the feeder, it can get slobbery at the stations if the drainage is not good.

I'd consider them very good value for money if you're rearing a good few calves. They reduce labour a lot and you have consistency with the rearing of calves. Any calves not thriving the way you'd like can be individually looked after. It was great last year coming into the yard in the morning and not to hear a peep from the calf shed.

RightTurnClyde

Off topic, but anyone using sawdust or wood chip pings to bed calves.seriously considering trying it this year.

ag guy

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Off topic, but anyone using sawdust or wood chip pings to bed calves.seriously considering trying it this year.

Just wondering why wood chipings

Buford T. Justice XIX

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Off topic, but anyone using sawdust or wood chip pings to bed calves.seriously considering trying it this year.

My vet is constantly threatening to carry me to his cousins farm where they bed with woodchip every year held back with a plank of timber and scraped out regularly. The calves are fed on concrete at the front of the pen with ration and milk. Some straw given too but I'm not sure where they feed that.

The woodchip is spread on ground for reseeding the following Autumn. I'm assuming they plough it down.

Timmaay

Got 4 grain trailer loads of woodchip last week, using it as a base in the two drycow straw bedded sheds. I used it in a calfshed before, but the doorway is reasonably narrow and floor uneven, was a pain in the arse cleaning it out, which is why I won't repeat. However the reason I like it under the drycows is I find the 1st week or so with just a thin base of straw the floor is reasonably slippy and it's the biggest chance of a cow injuring herself.

The Cuban

Any grants available for them Automatic feeders?
Tams?

Buford T. Justice XIX

ag guy wrote: »

Just wondering why wood chipings

They stay drier and warmer and you don't have to be bedding every day with straw, apparently.

Dawggone

The Cuban wrote: »

Any grants available for them?

Pure class!

Icelandicseige

https://www.donedeal.ie/dairycattle-for-sale/automatic-calf-feeders/13422830

Guy selling on DD If that helps anyone

ag guy

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

They stay drier and warmer and you don't have to be bedding every day with straw, apparently.

Would it be warmer than a good bed of straw,I taught the chippings' would absorb and hold more water

The Cuban

Dawggone wrote: »

Pure class!

:D

Buford T. Justice XIX

ag guy wrote: »

Would it be warmer than a good bed of straw,I taught the chippings' would absorb and hold more water

I don't know, I haven't gone to see yet:)

I think the urine doesn't get absorbed much, it flows to the bottom and the dung dries and gets mixed up with the woodchip when the calves move around, if I understood properly.

Welcome to Boards, by the way.

_Brian

Icelandicseige wrote: »

https://www.donedeal.ie/dairycattle-for-sale/automatic-calf-feeders/13422830

Guy selling on DD If that helps anyone

You'd think he was paying by the word or that photos were extra cost.

ag guy

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I don't know, I haven't gone to see yet:)

I think the urine doesn't get absorbed much, it flows to the bottom and the dung dries and gets mixed up with the woodchip when the calves move around, if I understood properly.

Welcome to Boards, by the way.

Thanks some good info on here

Icelandicseige

_Brian wrote: »

You'd think he was paying by the word or that photos were extra cost.

I know.. I hate that when very little info is put up. But then again everything could be A1 just the seller might not be computer literate.

Mooooo

Switched to putting barkmulch/wood chip under the calfpens instead of hardcore. This is inside in a shed found the young calves did better with a bit of straw on top and the the straw lasted longer on that instead of on bare concrete. Older calves would do okay without the straw. They probably function better on a pad with the rain to wash thru it

ag guy

ag guy wrote: »

Thanks some good info on here

Have you heard about increaseing feed quantities' to calves there seems to be a bit of a push on it,

Sam Kade

Icelandicseige wrote: »

https://www.donedeal.ie/dairycattle-for-sale/automatic-calf-feeders/13422830

Guy selling on DD If that helps anyone

That's an ad lib feeder the op is looking for a computerised feeder. I'd say the old ad lib feeders are only worth scrap value nowadays.

There's another fella selling a two station feeder for 2.5k but he seems to know nothing about and put on the ad that someone good with computers might be able to set it up. Maybe tell him we'll set it up first and if it works you'll get your money then.

Mooooo

I think there is a lad in the monitor farm programme and heard he feeds calves adlib. Heifers joining the herd seem to perform very well obviously different ways of doing it but that seems to be what works for him. We did years ago with an old spring feeder but we would have been filling quota easy back then and had more beef calves. They could go up to 8 or 9 litres a day easy edit
Would have used a good bit of acidifier in the milk

GrasstoMilk

ag guy wrote: »

Have you heard about increaseing feed quantities' to calves there seems to be a bit of a push on it,

Feed 900g of powder to calves here. Weaned at 8 wks old at 85kg.
Double birth weight is the key

GrasstoMilk

Folks at ploughing today looking at calf feeder.
Tbh hadn't thought of getting one till they started talking about them.

The volac one is 8k for 2 feed stations to feed 60 calves.
So basically that's 2 pens with 30 calves in each pen?

I would get the 1st 30 heifers rapidly here but there's a good bit of an age difference between the start of the next 30 and the last one.

Is that a problem?

Sam Kade

Mooooo wrote: »

I think there is a lad in the monitor farm programme and heard he feeds calves adlib. Heifers joining the herd seem to perform very well obviously different ways of doing it but that seems to be what works for him. We did years ago with an old spring feeder but we would have been filling quota easy back then and had more beef calves. They could go up to 8 or 9 litres a day easy edit
Would have used a good bit of acidifier in the milk

I used to feed acidified milk replacer cold ad lib different batches would drink from 1.5-3 gallons a day. You'd easily know the ones drinking 3 gallons a day.

Buford T. Justice XIX

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Folks at ploughing today looking at calf feeder.
Tbh hadn't thought of getting one till they started talking about them.

The volac one is 8k for 2 feed stations to feed 60 calves.
So basically that's 2 pens with 30 calves in each pen?

I would get the 1st 30 heifers rapidly here but there's a good bit of an age difference between the start of the next 30 and the last one.

Is that a problem?

Talking to the different lads there today, it doesn't. Calves on different stages of the programme get different levels of milk from starting to weaning. Water offered ad-lib so good ration intakes as Milk levels reduce.

When the first 30 are weaned you have a spare station to divide calves up again?