Automatic calf feeder, advice please?

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?

ag guy

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

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

Hi 900 grams of powder to what qty of water.were you on an auto feeder?

lakill Farm

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?

I got quoted 8.5K plus vat

Keepgrowing

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?

Quoted 12k for 4 station Volac feeder. Need to upgrade facilities ie build calf shed first.

Will operate hutches on the standoff pad this year. Groups of 30 on woodchip with Heston bales as corralls. Very helpful guys on that stand put me in touch with guys operating this system.

Drawings for new calf shed arrived in the post today and will be visiting the UK with them in July to look at calf sheds

Mooooo

Going to the UK with volac? Would be a good trip to see how they do things with continous batches of calves coming in

RightTurnClyde

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Quoted 12k for 4 station Volac feeder. Need to upgrade facilities ie build calf shed first.

Will operate hutches on the standoff pad this year. Groups of 30 on woodchip with Heston bales as corralls. Very helpful guys on that stand put me in touch with guys operating this system.

Drawings for new calf shed arrived in the post today and will be visiting the UK with them in July to look at calf sheds

If going with Volac, I'd suggest a strong look at the Urban rather than the Forster Technic.

amacca

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

If going with Volac, I'd suggest a strong look at the Urban rather than the Forster Technic.

Why, do you mind me asking?.....just with a brief glance over the two I was thinking the Forster was the one to go with

RightTurnClyde

amacca wrote: »

Why, do you mind me asking?.....just with a brief glance over the two I was thinking the Forster was the one to go with

Going from the advice of two neighbours, and when pressed, the service guy.
Went the urban myself last year on their advice and am extremely happy with it. Some of the main pros for Urban is, it will wash to the teat, has a better system to have all teats working at the one time, urban has a much higher capacity per stall. (Had 100 on 3 stalls here last year), quicker to pick up sick calves, without a heap of false alarms, much sturdier.



PS, to throw the cat amongst the pigeons if I had a choice of any feeder it would be the Holm and Laue, but Dairymaster are the only agents and they're moving to their own feeder in the next few years, so will be dropping H&L. And personally I didn't want to deal with DMaster anyway.

Mooooo

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

amacca wrote: »

Why, do you mind me asking?.....just with a brief glance over the two I was thinking the Forster was the one to go with

Going from the advice of two neighbours, and when pressed, the service guy.
Went the urban myself last year on their advice and am extremely happy with it. Some of the main pros for Urban is, it will wash to the teat, has a better system to have all teats working at the one time, urban has a much higher capacity per stall. (Had 100 on 3 stalls here last year), quicker to pick up sick calves, without a heap of false alarms, much sturdier.



PS, to throw the cat amongst the pigeons if I had a choice of any feeder it would be the Holm and Laue, but Dairymaster are the only agents and they're moving to their own feeder in the next few years, so will be dropping H&L. And personally I didn't want to deal with DMaster anyway.

I think there was a crowd up north who dealt with the h&l igloo system don't know if they do anything with their feeders or if they travel down south

RightTurnClyde

Mooooo wrote: »

I think there was a crowd up north who dealt with the h&l igloo system don't know if they do anything with their feeders or if they travel down south

Service would be the issue there. You'd need a service guy as good as a parlour service guy. Just think broken down feeder, service guy not immediately available, bawling calves and no way to feed them.

ag guy

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Service would be the issue there. You'd need a service guy as good as a parlour service guy. Just think broken down feeder, service guy not immediately available, bawling calves and no way to feed them.

Spot on service is the main thing that was one of the main reasons I went with the Dairymaster feeder