Creep feeder & creep gate questions..

bbam

Introduced a creep feeder last week.. never used one before. Does it usually take long before calves start using it?? Any tricks to make it faster/easier..

Also.. I wanted to use a creep gate idea to let the calves ahead of the cows onto fresh pastures.. I've never seen this done, my plan is to create an opening ~ 4 feet wide with electric fence wire at the appropriate height to keep cows in and let calves under... is this the best way ??

Thaks..
bam

emmemm

you would need to raise the fence as high as possible near a hedge if available for a distance of 20 metres until the calves are used to the entry.try not to chase them in as chaos could ensue.:D

reilig

bbam wrote: »

Introduced a creep feeder last week.. never used one before. Does it usually take long before calves start using it?? Any tricks to make it faster/easier..

Also.. I wanted to use a creep gate idea to let the calves ahead of the cows onto fresh pastures.. I've never seen this done, my plan is to create an opening ~ 4 feet wide with electric fence wire at the appropriate height to keep cows in and let calves under... is this the best way ??

Thaks..
bam

I have my "boys" on meal since July. I started them off by buying an expensive bag of crunch - something with a lot of mollasses in it that they would like. I put the creep in a nice dry place and bedded it with a bit of straw. To be honest with you, the calves were in it after an hour, and after a week, they had my first 25kg bag of meal ate. I have 8 calves on the 1 creep and feed them approximately 1kg of meal each per day. I will up it soon as grass is not as good quality and I want to have them finished for sales in November.

I use a creep gate too. I made it myself from box iron, its just an ordinary gate with 2 openings for the calves to go through - took the measurements from the openings on the creep and I have an adjustable bar on it to make the opening bigger. I always keep the calves ahead of the cows. I move the gate from place to place as it is light, and I just have to throw it on a trailer. I wouldn't like to use an electric fence to allow the calves to go under it, cause sure as hell he would touch it and be so frightened that he would think it hard to go near it again.

When I get the calves properly on meal, I like to put a trough on the head side of the creep gate and give calves meal in it once or twice daily - this frees up the creep for somewhere else and ensures that all 8 calves can get around the trough at the one time and get equal access to the meal - meaning that the biggest calf won't get to hog the meal like he does in the creep and eat 2 or 3 times his share.

Finally, a trick to make the process of getting calves onto meal faster - if your creep feeder has metal or rubber flaps on it to keep birds out, try propping open one of the flaps with a stone or piece of wood and feeding the first meal there until calves get to know how to open the flaps themselves. Also, don't put in too much meal at the start cause the birds might only get the biggest feed from it.
But honestly, at this time of year and in this weather, you will have no problem getting them on meal.

Best of luck

Dan

bbam

Success..
Calves have started using the creep feeder which is great... they seem to love the calf crunch...
Today we put up a creep gate to let them on ahead of the cows onto the fresh grass...

This will be the first year we've done either.

Cheers
bam..