Feeding calves on dairy farms takes a lot of work, especially on spring-calving farms where a lot of calves are born in a short period of time.
The planning for the arrival/feeding of calves next spring should be underway to ensure that calves are fed in an efficient way.
There was a major focus at the dairy stands at this year’s National Ploughing Championships on technology.
While technology has great variety, one area that dairy farms could look at is around feeding calves and using technology to reduce the labour inputs required.
Furthermore, with calf feeders now covered under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), it would make sense to look at this technology.
Feeding calves
The feeding of calves is one of the jobs during the spring that requires the most amount of time.
Feeding calves can be time consuming, especially if you’re mixing milk replacers by hand.
The use of some calf-feeding automation will not only save time, but also help to improve calf performance due to a more consistent feed.
Before purchasing what is an expensive piece of equipment, farmers should ensure that their current calf shed is suitable for a milk trolley or automatic feeder.
Some older calf sheds will not be suitable for an automatic feeder or milk trolley, so some work may need to be done before the new piece of equipment is purchased.
Before purchasing a milk trolley farmers should also ensure that there is enough space to move the trolley within the shed.
If the distance is short, milk can be ferried to the calves using buckets.
An automatic feeder needs access to water and drainage. Automatic feeders complete a number of washes/day, so a drain may be required to remove the excess water.
Farmers should also ensure that they have enough cashflow to make the purchases. These pieces of equipment are expensive and a review of the farm’s accounts should be completed before a purchase is considered.
One of the major benefits of using these pieces of equipment is that once used, correct calves should receive a consistent feed to avoid scouring, which can often be hard to achieve when mixing milk replacer in buckets.
Feeders
Some farms have installed automatic calf feeders which are an extremely efficient way of feeding calves on farms.
But for many, these may not be an investment that is possible at this time. Instead, these farmers should look at ways of reducing the time spent actually feeding calves.
One area to look at is ensuring there are enough feeders for the all of the pens in the shed.
If you are sharing feeders between pens this takes more time as you have to wait for each pen to finish before moving it on, but there is also an increased risk of spreading disease.
If each pen had its own feeder, calves could all be fed at the same time and there are no worries about disease being transferred.
Yes, it may be somewhat more expensive – but a home-made feeder using old barrels are on options as well.