Calves

https://informnutrition.com/products/calf-products-2/calf-products/
This stuff, around half a small scoop per calf into the milk
Same as that here, have moved to an auto feeder this year and it is a brilliant thing, only a handful of soft calves to feed by hand now. Definitely saving two hours a day for 3 months. No scour. Calves are more even and healthier and eating meal and straw quicker. They're not that expensive, Volac do 0% on them over three annual payments.

I have heard of someone adding propcorn (urea) to milk and pumping it to the calf shed. Stops it going sour. Haven't seen it myself but supposed to be a great job.
 
Same as that here, have moved to an auto feeder this year and it is a brilliant thing, only a handful of soft calves to feed by hand now. Definitely saving two hours a day for 3 months. No scour. Calves are more even and healthier and eating meal and straw quicker. They're not that expensive, Volac do 0% on them over three annual payments.

I have heard of someone adding propcorn (urea) to milk and pumping it to the calf shed. Stops it going sour. Haven't seen it myself but supposed to be a great job.

How soon can you put calves on the auto feeder,and is it only milkreplacer they can feed.
 
Many of ye having problems with scour in calves ? We have rotavirus here it's sicking altogether , and we vaccinated the 2nd half of the cows with bovigen and we still got it .
 
Many of ye having problems with scour in calves ? We have rotavirus here it's sicking altogether , and we vaccinated the 2nd half of the cows with bovigen and we still got it .

I know that a lot of people won't have much faith in a natural treatment but a cousin of mine had a problem with rota virus in October and he got a bottle of scouraid from apg. He gives a dose to every calf as soon as they drop and he has had no scours at all. Look up APG and you can buy it online.
 
Many of ye having problems with scour in calves ? We have rotavirus here it's sicking altogether , and we vaccinated the 2nd half of the cows with bovigen and we still got it .

Don't get too hung up on how or where it came from or why vaccines don't work or how its spreading, we got an awful doing with it here a few years ago, along with crypto, bloat, clostridia parfrigens, viral pneumonia and probably a whole load of other nasty bugs.
We were driven demented and the calf facilities were kept spotless with all the feeding equipment steam cleaned daily, heaps of bedding, foot bathing, dedi ated clothing to calf batches, colostrum management were top notch and testing was done on every batch. Halocur used.
It has taken me 2 yrs to eventually cop on and realise how stupid we were. The problem was in the immunity created by the cows during the dry cow period, there is never enough emphasis put on this, in fact, I would say there is almost nothing said about it, this is, to me, the single most important area in calf health. Pre calving minerals are shyte, we are now manually giving the cows iodine here, doing it this way means the cows are getting multiple times (and I mean multiple by multiple) the amount of iodine. 3 weeks before they calve, the cows are given 1kg of oats and 1kg of soya.

Colostrum management is as ever here, and calves are fed really well with Jersey Cross calves starting on 750 grammes and building up to over 1kg of powder a day.

I could go on for hours about this, (the more Ivve learned the last few years, the less I realise I know) but drenching new born calves with all sorts of hocus pocus medicines post partum is a practice that's on the rise and I believe its a fools errand if you haven't put in the work with the cows to start.

A good vet will treat and cure sick animals for a farmer, a great vet will prevent them getting sick.
 
Don't get too hung up on how or where it came from or why vaccines don't work or how its spreading, we got an awful doing with it here a few years ago, along with crypto, bloat, clostridia parfrigens, viral pneumonia and probably a whole load of other nasty bugs.
We were driven demented and the calf facilities were kept spotless with all the feeding equipment steam cleaned daily, heaps of bedding, foot bathing, dedi ated clothing to calf batches, colostrum management were top notch and testing was done on every batch. Halocur used.
It has taken me 2 yrs to eventually cop on and realise how stupid we were. The problem was in the immunity created by the cows during the dry cow period, there is never enough emphasis put on this, in fact, I would say there is almost nothing said about it, this is, to me, the single most important area in calf health. Pre calving minerals are shyte, we are now manually giving the cows iodine here, doing it this way means the cows are getting multiple times (and I mean multiple by multiple) the amount of iodine. 3 weeks before they calve, the cows are given 1kg of oats and 1kg of soya.

Colostrum management is as ever here, and calves are fed really well with Jersey Cross calves starting on 750 grammes and building up to over 1kg of powder a day.

I could go on for hours about this, (the more Ivve learned the last few years, the less I realise I know) but drenching new born calves with all sorts of hocus pocus medicines post partum is a practice that's on the rise and I believe its a fools errand if you haven't put in the work with the cows to start.

A good vet will treat and cure sick animals for a farmer, a great vet will prevent them getting sick.
Do the oats and the soya here, learnt from years of hardship and hard calvings.. What type of iodine do you use? Do you put it in the water or pour on their backs?
 
So what are you saying brucey that halocur sorted all them problems you had ? And you don't use pre calver minerals only iodine can you explain this a bit more ?
 
Do the oats and the soya here, learnt from years of hardship and hard calvings.. What type of iodine do you use? Do you put it in the water or pour on their backs?
We use Nettex 10% iodine, think its actually 8.4%. Have put it on their backs and have also put it on top of their feed once a month during the dry period. We go with 1ml per day so 30ml once a month. During lactating we mix up iodine, cobalt and copper in with soya in a cement mixer, this goes through a hopper that meters it in to the feed head for our parlour, cows can get a full rate of minerals here irrespective of meal amounts. We use this hopper for calcinated magnesite also. It is very accurate.

We have approx 140 calved here now, no held afterbirth and calving Jack hasn't been used at all.
 
Many of ye having problems with scour in calves ? We have rotavirus here it's sicking altogether , and we vaccinated the 2nd half of the cows with bovigen and we still got it .
Had a bunch of fresh calves get scour a couple of weeks ago. Salmonella and crypto detected. Found there was a slight draught down low in the part of the shed they were in. Also the didn't get fresh straw until the evening one day due to an oversight. Treated them and moved them to a snugger area. There's a small margin between ventilation and a draught. You have to jump on a problem quickly before it gets serious. I would maintain if they had not been exposed to the draught the problem wouldn't have arisen in the first place, once their temperature drops their immunity goes out the window. Easier said than done but if you can keep the babies in a separate airspace than the stronger calves or cows, that's the reason these problems arise later on when the shed gets full.
 
So what are you saying brucey that halocur sorted all them problems you had ? And you don't use pre calver minerals only iodine can you explain this a bit more ?

We don't use the halocur either, just used it the once and it was ineffective. It's a harsh product in the way it literally disinfects the abomasum.
We definitely do use pre calving minerals, but the point I'm making is that they are not at the races at all, iodine is the most obvious example of this. Other minerals and trace elements that are found in these mixes are essential. We did try getting specifically made minerals at a premium before, but it's far simpler and cheaper to use a cheap mineral and feed more of it, unless you know to have a problem with molybdenum then paying for the privelage of protected minerals is just throwing money away, salesmen would have you believe different. A soil test will enlighten you.
 
Had a bunch of fresh calves get scour a couple of weeks ago. Salmonella and crypto detected. Found there was a slight draught down low in the part of the shed they were in. Also the didn't get fresh straw until the evening one day due to an oversight. Treated them and moved them to a snugger area. There's a small margin between ventilation and a draught. You have to jump on a problem quickly before it gets serious. I would maintain if they had not been exposed to the draught the problem wouldn't have arisen in the first place, once their temperature drops their immunity goes out the window. Easier said than done but if you can keep the babies in a separate airspace than the stronger calves or cows, that's the reason these problems arise later on when the shed gets full.
Agree with the ventilation end. A high roof and the calves walled in with plenty of straw so no draughts and good drainage is key.
Don't draw too many conclusions on those kits that vets use to diagnose scours, a sick calf will let in and incubate all sorts of bugs, crypto being a prime example, lads go rushing for the halocur then. Ask a vet what % of his tests come back positive for crypto, you might get a fright!
 
Bit of a trial going on!
 

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Bit of a trial going on!
Did you put it on their spine also?? Have done the pouring on approach here also. It does work but damn it's messy! We just get them hungry once a month and pour it over their feed, ideally on top of meal but seldom possible here so just sprinkled evenly over silage with a rose head.
 
Did you put it on their spine also?? Have done the pouring on approach here also. It does work but damn it's messy! We just get them hungry once a month and pour it over their feed, ideally on top of meal but seldom possible here so just sprinkled evenly over silage with a rose head.
10mm on the top of their udder and 30mm down their back. With a syringe. 5 min job. I'll never know if you were right but suspect you are.
 
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