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• The calf feeder will free you from the heavy work of bucket feeding
Just remember that every calf will be fed with some 300 – 500 kg of milk during the rearing period.
• You gain more flexibility
There are no specific times when you have to feed your calves. You just do a check whenever time allows.
• Your can considerably reduce your working time
Research shows that you can save two to three hours per raised calf if you move from bucket feeding to computerised calf feeding.
• The calves have the optimal conditions for healthy growth
They are kept animal-friendly in groups where they can move freely and have social contact. They are fed precisely according to their needs from a computerised plan.
For rearing calves, milk should be reduced after 4 – 6 weeks, while concentrate and roughage should be increased. The weaning period is spread over a longer period so there will be no reduction in growth rate when the milk is taken away.
The combination of a milk feeder and a concentrate station will even give you full control over your main feedstuffs, and you can adapt the milk ration to the concentrate intake of every individual calf. This will minimise your feed costs and educate your calves to become ruminants at an early stage.
There is a large potential saving in feed costs. The automatic calf feeder can reduce the consumption of expensive milk products in many ways and still give high growth rates because calves start eating concentrate and roughage earlier. In our example, a saving of 20 kg of milk replacer means 20 EUR less total feed costs per calf.
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Feed intake is registered by the computer and shown immediately on the display. Relevant measurements can be promptly made which will help reduce vet costs.
The feeder facilitates savings of expensive milk products and encourages the intake of concentrate and hay. |
According to EU rules, calves must be kept in groups from the age of 8 weeks. If calves in loose housing are fed with buckets, there has to be enough space at the feeding table for all calves at the same time. There is no need for this with in barns with automatic milk feeders, and therefore, the barn area can be used much more flexibly. Less fencing equipment is required and, in most cases, the barn space can be considerably reduced.
Example: How to plan a calf barn for 30 calves with bucket feeding. The total barn area (length x width) comes to ~69 m2.
With an automatic calf feeder only ~58 m2 is needed. That means a 16 % space saving and corresponding reduction of building costs.
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