I always wondered why bottle fed calves would do better than bucket fed calves. I finally found the reason many years back. The reason is that the bottle fed milk follows a little groove and and bypasses the rumen. This sends the milk to go were it is supposed to and not sit in the rumen and ferment. The digestive enzymes are also a factor, but not the main reason. In college a student was actually able to find his groove on a baby antelope dissection and looked up its function. I was lucky enough to know the function of this channel before this, but it was nice to see it confirmed in all ruminants.
Hi Richard, love the calf video, good to see how other farmers operate, i love you channel. I grow up on a farm & from a young age I was bucket feeding calves (about 100 per year in the spring) we only used the single calf crates (like the ones in the start of this video) for sick calves, we fed our calves more like the 4 calves later in this video, however we had 6 calves per pen & one person with two special buckets (each bucket had three compartments one for each calf) it was fun trying to get the two buckets into each pen & trying to get all 6 calves drinking at the same time. As you are locked up with TB at the moment, will you have to rent grazing ground for the extra calves on the farm for the summer? Bryan
+Bryan O'Donnell Hi Bryan. Our system only really works because we usually have just a few calves born every week. As we calve all year round it's not too bad putting them through the pens first. If we were any bigger we would do it like you did.We are shut down with TB at the moment but hopefully won't have to rent any more land. It all depends what happens in the future tests
Do you worry for the calves like where they are sold to? Or do you just sell and not worry. Cause I used to raise calves for 4-H and I always worried when I sold them.
Great video thanks mate, love how you interact with your livestock BTW! Pretty awesome given the workload you'd have each day there. Just curious here, you still using these calf pens at all? Please don't take this the wrong way mate, certainly NOT accusing you of anything at all, but those pens, especially at the headgate end, have a horrid resembelence to veal crates sadly. Whist it's clear they're nothing alike inside the pen, any resemblance to those things would just disterb me sadly. Anyhow, thanks for sharing mate👍😃
I have to ask this question, in which I'd believe you were asked thousands of times already. Do you drink the raw cows milk or the pasturized store milk. I've drank a lot of raw warm cows milk many a times and I still prefer it that way but it's now illegal to sell it raw. in Pennsylvania USA.
Hi, i have a doubt.. what do you think about bucket feeding? Isn't it a bit dangerous as they could develop digestive problems, when drinking facing down?
It works for us as we calves all year round so often have colostrum milk that we can't put in the tank. Otherwise I think we would use milk replacer some of the time
+the funkyfarmer I live not far from you(I live in keynsham) and have never seen young calves taken away from there mum that early at what age do you take them how many hours/days
If u keep the calves 3 weeks with cows you're cows will end up with mastitis.are you milking then meanwhile?.I've work in 2 diferent countries in dairies and we took the calves after one day...
The Funky Farmer hey mate, really? Great to see they get a really great start there! (Though, like most things, all depends on the particular farm you're on, as many seperate on day one, which works great for them). Hope you get a great return at the end mate!
He doesn't go to the market because he doesn't have time when he would be up to 2 hours in the milking parlour then scrape the yard and bed the cubicles etc like me, so he gets a person to haul the calves to market. Hope this helped
+Louisa Rutherford I would guess that you are not familiar with how a dairy farm operates. The milk that the dairy cogives is the stuff that goes to market and is what you see in the supermarket cooler.
+R MacK Sarcastic much? The calf can be left with its dam to suckle and the cow can still be milked as usual, there is just less milk. But if you are feeding the separated calves cow's milk anyway what was the point in separating mother and calf and causing all of that stress?
+Louisa Rutherford First I'll say this: Louisa, you're beautiful. :) Too bad I live too far away. :) I don't have dairy cows but I'll try to explain ''how a dairy farm operates''. Richard has a different setup which does not allow him to keep the calves together with their mothers. (they're small, need more care and can't be left loose as his cows are). It means changing the complete infrastructure on his farm. Calves at first don't know how to feed themselves, so they need help. Leaving them with the cows might cause an increase in udder infections, milk quality problems and various health issues for both the cow and the calf. It takes more work and time to look after the cow and calf together than separately. And when you consider milk prices, investing into something better (which keeping the cow and the calf together might be) is not likely to happen... I hope this answer satisfies your curiosity. :)
+Louisa Rutherford Its not all about what the calf might do, some mothers are not the best at caring for their young, the calf might not get enough milk for example. taking them off their mother you can control their growth and give them the vital colostrum they might not be getting if you left them in the field with their mother, also you keep them out of bad weather and stop them picking up infections and diseases which they are more susceptible too at a young age.
+Louisa Rutherford My cousin used to suckle cows but it got a pain and it can cause concequences if the calfs are being suckled on the cow(disease) he gives the bull calves milk out the tank.
I always wondered why bottle fed calves would do better than bucket fed calves. I finally found the reason many years back. The reason is that the bottle fed milk follows a little groove and and bypasses the rumen. This sends the milk to go were it is supposed to and not sit in the rumen and ferment. The digestive enzymes are also a factor, but not the main reason. In college a student was actually able to find his groove on a baby antelope dissection and looked up its function. I was lucky enough to know the function of this channel before this, but it was nice to see it confirmed in all ruminants.
you alright mate !!!!!! love the way you talk to your animals ,lol .
+Amanda Williams thanks
Amanda Williams Hi Amanda r u the older lady of the, 3 in the picture u look nice.. I talk my cattle too and lol xx
Best video by far this year! Keep up the good work!
It is!
hey Richard I just got you book "A Year on a Dairy Farm" and it is AMAZING I'm in July section I just wanted to say it's amazing.
+Jack Olson that's great i'm glad you like it
I ISH THOSE BABIES COULD LIVE FOREVER. GRANNY USA. THANKS FOR SHARING.
you have great video's we have also a farm in holland keep going !! we have also a massey ferguson powerful tractors
+Rens Vdbroek Thankyou. Love the Masseys
Hi Richard, love the calf video, good to see how other farmers operate, i love you channel.
I grow up on a farm & from a young age I was bucket feeding calves (about 100 per year in the spring) we only used the single calf crates (like the ones in the start of this video) for sick calves, we fed our calves more like the 4 calves later in this video, however we had 6 calves per pen & one person with two special buckets (each bucket had three compartments one for each calf) it was fun trying to get the two buckets into each pen & trying to get all 6 calves drinking at the same time.
As you are locked up with TB at the moment, will you have to rent grazing ground for the extra calves on the farm for the summer? Bryan
+Bryan O'Donnell Hi Bryan. Our system only really works because we usually have just a few calves born every week. As we calve all year round it's not too bad putting them through the pens first. If we were any bigger we would do it like you did.We are shut down with TB at the moment but hopefully won't have to rent any more land. It all depends what happens in the future tests
Great video nice to have an update on the calving! Do you have many calved? We have 120 calved with 20 left.
+john sheehy we calve all year round so there are always some more to come
Do you worry for the calves like where they are sold to? Or do you just sell and not worry. Cause I used to raise calves for 4-H and I always worried when I sold them.
So I could bucket feed them whole milk for a couple months and then start them on the pellets you were feeding them? Thanks for the video!
what fate befalls the different types of calf shown in your interesting video?
Thanks for sharing.
+K2shadowfax the beef breeds and bull calves would go onto a beef rearer. The female calves end up being reared at home and end up in the4 herd
nice vid hows your grass growing?will you have enough silage for the extra stock when your next test?
+Antonyzetor not bad but can't let the cows out yet. We still have quite a bit of silage left, next test is May
Great video thanks mate, love how you interact with your livestock BTW! Pretty awesome given the workload you'd have each day there. Just curious here, you still using these calf pens at all? Please don't take this the wrong way mate, certainly NOT accusing you of anything at all, but those pens, especially at the headgate end, have a horrid resembelence to veal crates sadly. Whist it's clear they're nothing alike inside the pen, any resemblance to those things would just disterb me sadly.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing mate👍😃
I have to ask this question, in which I'd believe you were asked thousands of times already. Do you drink the raw cows milk or the pasturized store milk. I've drank a lot of raw warm cows milk many a times and I still prefer it that way but it's now illegal to sell it raw. in Pennsylvania USA.
yes i drink raw milk all the time. I think it tastes much better than bottled milk
We only got ONE Angus yet
Hi, i have a doubt.. what do you think about bucket feeding? Isn't it a bit dangerous as they could develop digestive problems, when drinking facing down?
i've been doing this for 30 years and it's not been a problem
The Funky Farmer all the proof you'd EVER need that hey!
Is whole milk better than milk replacer? We rear calves on milk replacer but i like the idea of milking a cow for the calves as it's probably cheaper
It works for us as we calves all year round so often have colostrum milk that we can't put in the tank. Otherwise I think we would use milk replacer some of the time
thefunkyfarmer i would buy your calves off you but your down south. They look very healthy to. What do you calve just fresian and herefords ?
i honestly think whole milk is probably better as it's natural as for replacer made in factory's
Angus as well
+the funkyfarmer I live not far from you(I live in keynsham) and have never seen young calves taken away from there mum that early at what age do you take them how many hours/days
+Daniel Murphy every dairy farm does it. Quite often earlier than we do. We take them from the cows at about 3 weeks old
If u keep the calves 3 weeks with cows you're cows will end up with mastitis.are you milking then meanwhile?.I've work in 2 diferent countries in dairies and we took the calves after one day...
The Funky Farmer hey mate, really? Great to see they get a really great start there! (Though, like most things, all depends on the particular farm you're on, as many seperate on day one, which works great for them). Hope you get a great return at the end mate!
When are the cows going out?
+William Mellor maybe 10 days
how old are they before you start bucket feeding them
couple of weeks usually
Hi were in the world is this see u still have the old steel tags.. Nice cavles
I'm in England
V good we last had steel tags in 2001
+TheFunkyFarmer plz plz plz do a video of u selling cows or calves at the market
He doesn't go to the market because he doesn't have time when he would be up to 2 hours in the milking parlour then scrape the yard and bed the cubicles etc like me, so he gets a person to haul the calves to market. Hope this helped
+john sheehy also he is shut down with tb at the moment and cant sell his stock. well i lie, he could but it would basically be giving it away
HEY MATE,KEEP EVERYTHING CLEAN IN THAT FARM.
how many cow do you have
70
If it's more economical to feed milk from the cows then why bother taking the calves away in the first place?
+Louisa Rutherford I would guess that you are not familiar with how a dairy farm operates. The milk that the dairy cogives is the stuff that goes to market and is what you see in the supermarket cooler.
+R MacK Sarcastic much? The calf can be left with its dam to suckle and the cow can still be milked as usual, there is just less milk. But if you are feeding the separated calves cow's milk anyway what was the point in separating mother and calf and causing all of that stress?
+Louisa Rutherford
First I'll say this: Louisa, you're beautiful. :) Too bad I live too far away. :)
I don't have dairy cows but I'll try to explain ''how a dairy farm operates''. Richard has a different setup which does not allow him to keep the calves together with their mothers. (they're small, need more care and can't be left loose as his cows are). It means changing the complete infrastructure on his farm. Calves at first don't know how to feed themselves, so they need help. Leaving them with the cows might cause an increase in udder infections, milk quality problems and various health issues for both the cow and the calf. It takes more work and time to look after the cow and calf together than separately. And when you consider milk prices, investing into something better (which keeping the cow and the calf together might be) is not likely to happen... I hope this answer satisfies your curiosity. :)
+Louisa Rutherford Its not all about what the calf might do, some mothers are not the best at caring for their young, the calf might not get enough milk for example. taking them off their mother you can control their growth and give them the vital colostrum they might not be getting if you left them in the field with their mother, also you keep them out of bad weather and stop them picking up infections and diseases which they are more susceptible too at a young age.
+Louisa Rutherford My cousin used to suckle cows but it got a pain and it can cause concequences if the calfs are being suckled on the cow(disease) he gives the bull calves milk out the tank.