bucket feeding calves

defadman

had a cow with twin calves,only 5 days old.The cow died today from milk fever. I bought golden maveric today for them and they are just beginning to suck. Im fairly new to the seen at this, was wondering does anyone have any tips or just give your opinion on the matter

mink_man

Maverick alone will not build them up strong, you will notice a difference, they'll just get big bellies, you need to give them some mineral licks aswell.

Have you maybe another cow that would be able take one of the calves?

irishh_bob

mink_man wrote: »

Maverick alone will not build them up strong, you will notice a difference, they'll just get big bellies, you need to give them some mineral licks aswell.

Have you maybe another cow that would be able take one of the calves?

been around the rearing of calves for over twenty years and thats the 1st ive heard of leaving mineral licks with calves

OP , calves at five days old are perfectly eligible for milk replacer , just follow the instructions on the bag , seeing as they are twins , maybe give them a smaller mix

defadman

you mean calmag? well we have no other cows, were going to feed them meal after about 2 months, to allow the rumen to develope

epff

do a few on buckets every year
advice is spare the powder and water keep meal and straw and water with them at all times.keep to the clock same time every day and go to once a day sooner rather than later as it gets them eating meal quicker

5live

mink_man wrote: »

Maverick alone will not build them up strong, you will notice a difference, they'll just get big bellies, you need to give them some mineral licks aswell.

Have you maybe another cow that would be able take one of the calves?

Afaik maverick is perfectly balanced in terms of both milk constituents and minerals to allow any calf to be adequately reared on milk replacer alone with suitable supplementation of rations and roughage to allow proper rumen development. Just follow the instructions on the bag.

As far as big bellies on calves are concerned, perhaps the provision of adequate quantity and quality of alternate feedstuffs might be a factor in the inadequate thrive of calves in your experience that is rectified by mineral supplementation?

charityboy

defadman wrote: »

you mean calmag? well we have no other cows, were going to feed them meal after about 2 months, to allow the rumen to develope

reared alot of calves this year ,never heard of leaving a mineral lick with a young calf ,his stomach would not be developed enough for one ,they would get enough min and vit from the milkreplacer until they are older feed them milk only for a few weeks and gradually introduce a calf ration and some straw or hay for roughage and fresh water when you are happy that they are eating plenty of ration you could start to wean them ,i dont wean my calves after a certain length of time ,i wean when they are eating plenty of meal and they are in good condition some calves get milk for eight weeks some could still be on it for twelve start them small on milk and meal and the stronger they get the more you give them , if you have a sheltered paddock i would put them out in it when the weather clears up less chance of scours etc

bbam

We rear some each year and have 26 so far this year..
We are using Supercream from Freshacres and find it as good as Maverick and considerably cheaper per feed..

We have pencils/barley straw and fresh water with them all the time, fresh water every day even if it's not touched..

Once they are eating 1kg of meal we start weaning, wean morning feed first followed by evening feed the next week...

The only calf we had trouble with this year was one who wouldn't eat hay/straw when on the milk... have him on the road now:)


Regarding how much milk to feed... We reared calves separately last year, one got a bag of supercream and the other got two bags of Maverick.. Now out on grass they are identical in weight/size so feeding extra milk doesn't guarantee better bucket reared calves..

LostCovey

defadman wrote: »

had a cow with twin calves,only 5 days old.The cow died today from milk fever. I bought golden maveric today for them and they are just beginning to suck. Im fairly new to the seen at this, was wondering does anyone have any tips or just give your opinion on the matter

Works fine, but women are the best at rearing calves because unlike men they read the instructions on the bag and follow them exactly.

Men make the stuff up till it looks OK.

Mineral licks - I wouldn't worry about.

Get them onto meal & hay ASAP, have clean water available at all times, a dry bed and an airy pen free of draughts and make up the replacer as per the instruction and they will be fine.

Ignore the witch doctor stuff, it's not complicated.

Even I have reared calves on the stuff for Gods sake.

LostCovey

what happen

LostCovey wrote: »

Works fine, but women are the best at rearing calves because unlike men they read the instructions on the bag and follow them exactly.

Men make the stuff up till it looks OK.

Mineral licks - I wouldn't worry about.

Get them onto meal & hay ASAP, have clean water available at all times, a dry bed and an airy pen free of draughts and make up the replacer as per the instruction and they will be fine.

Ignore the witch doctor stuff, it's not complicated.

Even I have reared calves on the stuff for Gods sake.

LostCovey

the straw is better for the rumen then hay.

F.D

We reared a lot of calves on the milk replacer and got on ok, as for women been better, i found my wife was killing them with kindness even more so when it came to meal, like everyone else says stick to what it says on the bag

whelan1

F.D wrote: »

We reared a lot of calves on the milk replacer and got on ok, as for women been better, i found my wife was killing them with kindness even more so when it came to meal, like everyone else says stick to what it says on the bag

sold calves to a lad last year and he came back to me that they wheren't doing well , turns out he never read the milk food bag and was giving them a few handfuls of powder:rolleyes: i just think that the women spend a bit more time mollycoddling them than the men

irishh_bob

whelan1 wrote: »

sold calves to a lad last year and he came back to me that they wheren't doing well , turns out he never read the milk food bag and was giving them a few handfuls of powder:rolleyes: i just think that the women spend a bit more time mollycoddling them than the men

sounds like a prize chump