Feeding the Future
If you care about the future of your farm, you care about your calves.
The first months of a calf’s life are some of the most important when it comes to lifetime production. What they are fed, where they live, their growth rate, and their health – all have life-long impacts. Farm to farm, the goal of raising calves remains the same. To promote healthy and fast-growing calves.
Automatic Calf Feeders
By using automated calf feeders, calves can consume their allotted amount of milk as they desire. By doing so, they are better able to digest and absorb nutrients in increments. As they begin the weaning process, they must self-measure and feed off grain, pellets, and hay for energy. This promotes rumen development for optimal digestibility and growth. By growing your calves to breeding size earlier in life, the sooner you are able to bring them into lactation.
When making the change to automatic feeding, you are also making the change to group housing. This supports the calf’s ability to get exercise, be social – reducing stress, and allowing calves to learn how to eat together. With automatic feeding and group housing, the amount of labor time and costs you save are exponential.
Calves are connected to the feeding system by a collar or ear tag. Every calf is tracked, from their movement, rumination, and most importantly, their milk consumption. By being able to track calves you can focus better on the ones that need your attention the most.
Automatic calf feeders are able to feed fresh milk, mix water with replacement powder, or feed a combination. Automatic calf feeders are self-cleaning and sanitize after each calf. Thus, cross-contamination is greatly reduced. Not only do automatic calf feeders promote herd productivity but operational efficiency.
Pasteurizers
Whether you are investing in a mobile or stationary pasteurizer, you will see a significant health differentiation in comparison to feeding calves raw milk. By eliminating harmful bacteria, calves excel in good health. The accuracy of feeding with a pasteurizer is exceptional when compared to other manual methods. Being able to store milk in the pasteurizer and keep it at proper feeding temperature, 105 degrees Fahrenheit, is another benefit. Cold milk, whether it is raw or a replacer, can be acidic to calves and no calf likes cold milk anyhow.
If you are looking to advance your calf feeding system, for the benefits of both the operation and your calves, consider the cost, the savings, and the future. Your dairy equipment dealer would be happy to chat with you!