Automatic Calf feeders

rathbeg · 29-08-2015 09:36PM

From looking at them the H&L is just done by Diarymaster in the south so I am a little worried about service and parts
the Foster is a bit dearer and only feeds one calf at a time
the Urban is a bit cheaper and has the ability to feed all crates at the one time which to me means I might be able to feed more calves per crate
Am I looking at it correctly as it almost seems I'm missing something

Hugh 2 · 29-08-2015 10:46PM

rathbeg wrote: »

From looking at them the H&L is just done by Diarymaster in the south so I am a little worried about service and parts
the Foster is a bit dearer and only feeds one calf at a time
the Urban is a bit cheaper and has the ability to feed all crates at the one time which to me means I might be able to feed more calves per crate
Am I looking at it correctly as it almost seems I'm missing something

Foster is sold under many guises
Deleval GEA Lely are the ones I know of

Urban sell their own

I have never met anyone who was unhappy with either a Foster or Urban

Both machines can be got as a powder only which are probably going to be the most popular now that the Quota is gone

I bought a U40 duel feeder ( feeds powder or whole milk or a % of each - more expensive and you have to do a extra whole milk wash ) for reasons I mentioned earlier .

This is one machine that I am delighted I bought and if ever I get round to building a calf house it would be designed to suit one of these.

RightTurnClyde · 29-08-2015 11:04PM

Dawggone wrote: »

DeLaval. I forget who actually made it, but I can have a look tomorrow if you want.

Dawg, does your one do meal aswell.

rathbeg · 30-08-2015 03:09AM

thanks Hugh
The urban seems to make more sence to me so I think Ill take the the plunge

Dawggone · 30-08-2015 07:26AM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Dawg, does your one do meal aswell.

Yes.

Hugh 2 · 30-08-2015 02:21PM

Dawggone wrote: »

Yes.

How do you find the meal feeding I presume it is a separate station or crate does it know how much each calf eats ( does it know if they eat all that is allocated )
I just use ad lib hoppers wth skirts that keep the birds out

Dawggone · 30-08-2015 02:42PM

Hugh 2 wrote: »

How do you find the meal feeding I presume it is a separate station or crate does it know how much each calf eats ( does it know if they eat all that is allocated )
I just use ad lib hoppers wth skirts that keep the birds out

The meal station is not really needed at all. Works well though and is programmable like the milk station. If I were to buy again I wouldn't bother with the concentrate feeder.

F.D · 31-08-2015 11:22AM

Hugh 2 wrote: »

How do you find the meal feeding I presume it is a separate station or crate does it know how much each calf eats ( does it know if they eat all that is allocated )
I just use ad lib hoppers wth skirts that keep the birds out

Do you have any calves that gorge or eat too much out of the ad lib hoppers ?
We feed nuts to try and keep the birds out we top up the trough twice a day
but am thinking of changing to them hoppers and back to a ration
What make of one do you have ?
do the small calves take to it OK ?

Hugh 2 · 01-09-2015 11:06PM

F.D wrote: »

Do you have any calves that gorge or eat too much out of the ad lib hoppers ?
We feed nuts to try and keep the birds out we top up the trough twice a day
but am thinking of changing to them hoppers and back to a ration
What make of one do you have ?
do the small calves take to it OK ?

The ones I like the most are wydale 20 kg hoppers rainproof with bird flaps that I got if Connacht agri ( they don't sell these smaller ones anymore they can hang off the twined of the square bales that we use as shelter/walls)

Calving is fairly compact and we fill one pen before starting the next pen
these dispensers are kept topped up for the early weeks this keeps the feeding area buzy and new calves seem to often figure out where to get milk by themselves

twords weaning the calves all go out by daytime like a heard of cows and back again at night time at this stage calves meal feding is in troughs

Milked out · 14-10-2015 03:04PM

Got a card in the door from lely offering 0% finance on auto calf feeders, will be at dairy show in millstreet Saturday

mahoney_j · 14-10-2015 03:44PM

Milked out wrote: »

Got a card in the door from lely offering 0% finance on auto calf feeders, will be at dairy show in millstreet Saturday

Free money!!!,go for s gwak anyway def one in pipeline here but need to settle on design for calf shed first

RightTurnClyde · 14-10-2015 04:34PM

Milked out wrote: »

Got a card in the door from lely offering 0% finance on auto calf feeders, will be at dairy show in millstreet Saturday

Got a brochure from Volac, they're giving 1% deals over 3 hrs.

Buford T. Justice XIX · 14-10-2015 05:10PM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

Got a brochure from Volac, they're giving 1% deals over 3 hrs.

Just give them the cheque straight away and save your 1% :-)

Milked out · 14-10-2015 05:33PM

What are they priced at? Roughly 10k for one that would manage 100 calves? If so at 0% over 36 months would come to 278 a month. May not save time as you still have to check em all but would allow you to do it at more suitable time without walking out to a cacophony of roars every morn looking for milk

RightTurnClyde · 14-10-2015 05:45PM

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Just give them the cheque straight away and save your 1% :-)

At 1% the more you spend, the more you save.

RightTurnClyde · 14-10-2015 05:56PM

Milked out wrote: »

What are they priced at? Roughly 10k for one that would manage 100 calves? If so at 0% over 36 months would come to 278 a month. May not save time as you still have to check em all but would allow you to do it at more suitable time without walking out to a cacophony of roars every morn looking for milk

That's where I was getting caught last year, too many jobs on first thing in the morning and later in the evening. And the other was, the last few March born heifers weren't getting the attention they should in April and May. They end up getting the bums rush and weaned too early. ( and I end up looking at or hand feeding 3 or 4 crappy heifers for the summer)

Milked out · 14-10-2015 06:04PM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

That's where I was getting caught last year, too many jobs on first thing in the morning and later in the evening. And the other was, the last few March born heifers weren't getting the attention they should in April and May. They end up getting the bums rush and weaned too early. ( and I end up looking at or hand feeding 3 or 4 crappy heifers for the summer)

Same story here, prob won't go this year but with calves from oct to April may well be worth it

rathbeg · 14-10-2015 09:57PM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

At 1% the more you spend, the more you save.

that finance offer from Volac is a bit of a joke because if you do not want to avail of the finance they take off a further 1.5% off the price

The best I am getting the Urban feeder ( powder only ) with 4 feeding crates at the moment is 12K with 20 bags of milk replacer and a few teats trown in

kevthegaff · 14-10-2015 10:21PM

rathbeg wrote: »

that finance offer from Volac is a bit of a joke because if you do not want to avail of the finance they take off a further 1.5% off the price

The best I am getting the Urban feeder ( powder only ) with 4 feeding crates at the moment is 12K with 20 bags of milk replacer and a few teats trown in

How many would that feed?

RightTurnClyde · 14-10-2015 10:39PM

rathbeg wrote: »

that finance offer from Volac is a bit of a joke because if you do not want to avail of the finance they take off a further 1.5% off the price

If they're doing that, that's against the law

RightTurnClyde · 14-10-2015 10:45PM

kevthegaff wrote: »

How many would that feed?

On the Urban 30-35 per crate so 4 would do 120 -140

rathbeg · 14-10-2015 10:48PM

kevthegaff wrote: »

How many would that feed?

from what I can make out young calves need more access to the crate and a crate will do 25 to 30 calves max and as they get older and better at it up to 35 can be fed in each crate

rathbeg · 14-10-2015 10:48PM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

If they're doing that, that's against the law

against the law or not they are doing it

RightTurnClyde · 14-10-2015 10:51PM

rathbeg wrote: »

against the law or not they are doing it

You should get the price off them straight and when deal is done nail them for the finance, they won't be able to budge on the initial price.

rathbeg · 14-10-2015 10:56PM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

You should get the price off them straight and when deal is done nail them for the finance, they won't be able to budge on the initial price.

You are proably right but being Irish I need them afterwards and don't want to piss them off after sale service and all that

rathbeg · 14-10-2015 10:56PM

RightTurnClyde wrote: »

You should get the price off them straight and when deal is done nail them for the finance, they won't be able to budge on the initial price.

You are proably right but being Irish I need them afterwards and don't want to piss them off after sale service and all that

Wildsurfer · 18-12-2015 09:44PM

Just wondering if anyone has experience of the lely calm auto feeder. I have got a price of 8k+vat(can be reclaimed) for powder only model with two feed stations without collars as I will get EID tags. Might get a couple of collars in case I lose a tag or haven't a calf tagged. With 0% finance over 3 years seems a good option to reduce the mayhem this spring! Seems the volac Urban is a more popular machine around here so if anyone has any info on lely I'd appreciate it. I have a pen 32'x20' where feeder will be positioned. Prob bucket feed calves for a week and then put them on feeder. Pen should hold about 55 calves.

rathbeg · 19-12-2015 05:53PM

Wildsurfer wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone has experience of the lely calm auto feeder. I have got a price of 8k+vat(can be reclaimed) for powder only model with two feed stations without collars as I will get EID tags. Might get a couple of collars in case I lose a tag or haven't a calf tagged. With 0% finance over 3 years seems a good option to reduce the mayhem this spring! Seems the volac Urban is a more popular machine around here so if anyone has any info on lely I'd appreciate it. I have a pen 32'x20' where feeder will be positioned. Prob bucket feed calves for a week and then put them on feeder. Pen should hold about 55 calves.

on my bit of reasearch they work well once you get used to them
lely is foster with diferant clothes and prioratises feeding
your space per calf might be a bit tight I was allowing 20 ft+ per calf

hedgebury · 19-12-2015 08:22PM

theres a calf milk heater called heatwave and you can have all the benefits of an automatic feeder for something like 4-500 euro

Buford T. Justice XIX · 19-12-2015 08:52PM

hedgebury wrote: »

theres a calf milk heater called heatwave and you can have all the benefits of an automatic feeder for something like 4-500 euro

I doubt it feeds and records the individual calf intakes and flags any problems.

I'd say it just heats up the milk to feed to calves.

Automatic Calf feeders

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