Pot belly on calves

Wessel3

Hi all. Any idea why? Getting around 1.5 kg starter pellets and hay. Around 8/9 weeks old. Only noticed it recently

White Clover

Wessel3 wrote: »

Hi all. Any idea why? Getting around 1.5 kg starter pellets and hay. Around 8/9 weeks old. Only noticed it recently

It's the hay, take it out and replace with clean straw or grass if you can get them out. I'd recommend upping the meal a bit too if they'll eat it. Are they getting much milk?

Wessel3

I meant to say they were weaned at 8 weeks . I was feeding straw but thought hay might have slightly better nutrition for rumen development. Also on the bag of pellets advises max 3kg head day. Maybe up it but didn't want to run the I sides out of them. Dung very tight at the minute. I've precision first cut silage there for them but was unsure whether to give it to them if it was too rich

rangler1

Wessel3 wrote: »

I meant to say they were weaned at 8 weeks . I was feeding straw but thought hay might have slightly better nutrition for rumen development. Also on the bag of pellets advises max 3kg head day. Maybe up it but didn't want to run the I sides out of them. Dung very tight at the minute. I've precision first cut silage there for them but was unsure whether to give it to them if it was too rich

They shouldn't be potbellied on 1.5 kg pellets, you should insist on getting a list of ingredients and put it up here or even write up the list that's written on the label on the bag, there's guys here that'll tell you whether it's good enough, Calves can get pot bellied from poor nutrition too

whelan2

We never feed hay. Calves love straw. Straw is much better for the rumen

rangler1

whelan2 wrote: »

We never feed hay. Calves love straw. Straw is much better for the rumen

what rate of ration would you expect calves to be eating at that age, it's probably the most efficient time to feed calves well

Mooooo

If they are inside give them the nuts adlib along with straw, if weaned they will eat north of 2 kgs easy, have a bunch here being weaned and eating 2.5 kg on average a few weeks between oldest and youngest so prob range from 2 to 3 kg. Can you get them out?, pull a wire across the yard to get them used to the fence and let them out a tad hungry. Fed Wynne calf grower and switched to a 18 % nut now for when they go out wed.

whelan2

rangler1 wrote: »

what rate of ration would you expect calves to be eating at that age, it's probably the most efficient time to feed calves well

Mine are on 3kg meal. Still inside unfortunately. Hope to get help to get them to outfarm this week. On ad lib straw and a small bit of pit silage and the meal

rangler1

Mooooo wrote: »

If they are inside give them the nuts adlib along with straw, if weaned they will eat north of 2 kgs easy, have a bunch here being weaned and eating 2.5 kg on average a few weeks between oldest and youngest so prob range from 2 to 3 kg. Can you get them out?, pull a wire across the yard to get them used to the fence and let them out a tad hungry. Fed Wynne calf grower and switched to a 18 % nut now for when they go out wed.

Yea, I was thinking that, used to bucket feed calves here in the eighties and thought that 1.5kgs didn't sound enough

Mooooo

Got a big creep feeder that hangs on the gate after seeing it in a pic from keep growing, will hold near on 3 bags of ration, over 2 bags a day going with 20 calves in the group. The couple of fleckveih are more are less parked in it whenever I go down. Feeder is hung outside and ration is dry and crows stay away

Wessel3

Thanks so far. I've been giving them a blue gallon bucket between them a day split in half for two feeds. Around 6kg between 4 . I've to wait a few weeks in regrowth to get them onto grazing. Thompsons weaner cudlets seem to like it ok. Maybe up it a bit them?

_Brian

Hay is the devil for calves.
Puts bellies on them, straw never seems to.

Calves are born with the rumen stomach small and inactive, there isn't enough roughage in the hay to activate the rumen sufficiently so it remains undigested. Straw on the other hand has sufficient roughage to activate the rumen.

Similarly calf starter crunch is preferable over calf pencils as it has higher roughage content.

whelan2

_Brian wrote: »

Hay is the devil for calves.
Puts bellies on them, straw never seems to.

Calves are born with the rumen stomach small and inactive, there isn't enough roughage in the hay to activate the rumen sufficiently so it remains undigested. Straw on the other hand has sufficient roughage to activate the rumen.

Similarly calf starter crunch is preferable over calf pencils as it has higher roughage content.

Only problem with crunch at this time of year is crows go mad for it.

White Clover

Wessel3 wrote: »

Thanks so far. I've been giving them a blue gallon bucket between them a day split in half for two feeds. Around 6kg between 4 . I've to wait a few weeks in regrowth to get them onto grazing. Thompsons weaner cudlets seem to like it ok. Maybe up it a bit them?

A 5l bucket, (near 6l to very top) holds 4kg beef nuts filled to very top. Sounds like they're not getting enough meal and are eating alot of hay.

Wessel3

I actually couldn't get them eat coarse blend. Hence I went to pencils. Hard to know what to do .
I've been advised to remove hay and offer silage? Or is straw best ta

Good loser

The pot bellies will be gone in 3/4 months even if you do nothing. Relax.

Mooooo

Wessel3 wrote: »

I actually couldn't get them eat coarse blend. Hence I went to pencils. Hard to know what to do .
I've been advised to remove hay and offer silage? Or is straw best ta

Leave straw on a rack for them to eat, if you have a bit of silage you can give them. Pick of that in feed trough as well, but def straw available, if they are finishing what you are giving in nuts give them more. On leaving them out, don't leave the grass grow for too long, short fresh grass for calves is best and move them on then without pushing them too hard, if you have older cattle you can use them to finish out the calf paddock

Wessel3

Hope to get them out soon. Thanks for advice everyone much appreciated. I've changed them onto straw. I weighed bucket of meal full. It's sitting at 5 kg on the suit case scales. Il give them a bit more and include silage.

Sam Kade

Good loser wrote: »

The pot bellies will be gone in 3/4 months even if you do nothing. Relax.

If they had them that long it could make them stunted.

stretch film

Plenty opinion that its the starch in the meal that stimulates Rumen development.

Less roughage and encourage meal intake in the first few weeks.

Hay is definitely a no no .

The nut I'm feeding has a rate of 1.25kgs per 100 kg bw so check the label is the only advice surely on meal feeding.

Wessel3

stretch, yes, the bag says max 3kg a head, they're getting between 1.25 and 1.5 roughly speaking each day. Ive switched to straw now. they were fed straw for a while and then ironically I thought hay was better and was well please when they were cleaning up the rack each day and getting plenty of DMI. I don't want them growing into screw of things with a pot belly, certainly dont want to be waiting months for it to remedy itself. I got them at 4 weeks and how much meal etc they were offered prior is a guess at best.

stretch film

Wessel3 wrote: »

stretch, yes, the bag says max 3kg a head, they're getting between 1.25 and 1.5 roughly speaking each day. Ive switched to straw now. they were fed straw for a while and then ironically I thought hay was better and was well please when they were cleaning up the rack each day and getting plenty of DMI. I don't want them growing into screw of things with a pot belly, certainly dont want to be waiting months for it to remedy itself. I got them at 4 weeks and how much meal etc they were offered prior is a guess at best.

Hay was a staple here under the old regime:) with the pot bellies as standard.

Invariably calves were weaned with an inability to thrive on .

They were not getting enough meal at an early enough date so the rumen was underdeveloped come weaning desire them being able to consume the proverbial kg prior to weaning.

rangler1

Wessel3 wrote: »

stretch, yes, the bag says max 3kg a head, they're getting between 1.25 and 1.5 roughly speaking each day. Ive switched to straw now. they were fed straw for a while and then ironically I thought hay was better and was well please when they were cleaning up the rack each day and getting plenty of DMI. I don't want them growing into screw of things with a pot belly, certainly dont want to be waiting months for it to remedy itself. I got them at 4 weeks and how much meal etc they were offered prior is a guess at best.

Pet lambs are eating near a kg/day of meal here along with milk and they're only about 15kg weight.....they're getting straw too

Wessel3

I could maybe up meal. Didn't want to burn the guts out of them though either