Water drinker recommendations smallish pens? Young dairy calves

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Yellow-belly greenhorn

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

Looking at putting in small drinkers in new born calf pens.

5 pens to do.
Will be 6-10 new born to few weeks old calves in each pen.

Came across below 3ltr plastic ones which are cheapest I found at €20. I know buy cheap buy twice but these drinkers wont get any hassle with very young calves id imagine.

Any recommendations for other good value but ok ones or anyone use these?


Screenshot_2024-01-08-15-58-24-18_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg
 
Yellow-belly greenhorn said:
Hi all,

Looking at putting in small drinkers in new born calf pens.

5 pens to do.
Will be 6-10 new born to few weeks old calves in each pen.

Came across below 3ltr plastic ones which are cheapest I found at €20. I know buy cheap buy twice but these drinkers wont get any hassle with very young calves id imagine.

Any recommendations for other good value but ok ones or anyone use these?


View attachment 132526
Click to expand...
You might need a pressure regulating valve in the line for those, depending on the ball valve supplied with them, they are £25 - 30 so might lift the cost above buying better valves?
 
AYF said:
You might need a pressure regulating valve in the line for those, depending on the ball valve supplied with them, they are £25 - 30 so might lift the cost above buying better valves?
Click to expand...
Wasn't aware of that.
Thanks very much for the heads up.
No small drinkers in this place in decades so not up to speed on them.
 
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Do fellas find that young calves make themselves cold by drinking too much water at that age?
 
At a talk the experts were saying calves should be drinking 1L of water a day, that its worth 50g dwg. Made a good point about positioning the drinkers out near the front gate/drain of the pen, so that if it did leak that the water wouldn't make the bedding damp.
 
Green Grass said:
is the trouble with them small drinkers the ball valve keeps open and they keep dripping down on bedding ,I think the dearer jfc ones have a dearer valve for higher pressure
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Jfc have both kinds of valves.
I bought some replacement jfc ball valves, they all leaked! Just a slight flow, enough to overflow the trough in a few hours.
Phoned JFC only to be told by someone who was obviously clueless that "they probably just need time to settle in!"

Sent them all back!
If he had said they were low pressure I'd have fitted a reducer!
 
AYF said:
Jfc have both kinds of valves.
I bought some replacement jfc ball valves, they all leaked! Just a slight flow, enough to overflow the trough in a few hours.
Phoned JFC only to be told by someone who was obviously clueless that "they probably just need time to settle in!"

Sent them all back!
If he had said they were low pressure I'd have fitted a reducer!
Click to expand...
What was the solution in the end?
 
Timber2 said:
At a talk the experts were saying calves should be drinking 1L of water a day, that its worth 50g dwg. Made a good point about positioning the drinkers out near the front gate/drain of the pen, so that if it did leak that the water wouldn't make the bedding damp.
Click to expand...
That's my hope here that if they get everything they could possibly want first few weeks will help them long term and save work.

We were previously giving them water filled in buckets when in these pens but that drops down the priority list quickly in the depths on calving season. 1 less job too.
Setup is fine for Heifers once they move onto the auto feeder pens so it's moreso for bulls benifit until they go.

Have a few over gate hay racks,
Small square bales of hay got too for first time that drop in instead of spronging big ones other years. A little less work again.

Batter powered high flow water/milk pump as well for the whole milk carts to speed things up and reduce bucketing.


Thanks AYF.
AYF said:
Found parts for the old valves!😅
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FIAT 450 said:
Have the plastic jfc drinkers in calf pens since 07. I don't think we have had to go at them since. Well worth the money
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A lot of those drinking bowls are only designed for gravity feed, so if you have high water pressure they usually overflow.
 
I had so much bother with water bowls and small troughs with shitty low pressure ball cocks I only buy troughs with full size valves now.
This type.

Alvin Fisher Water Trough

Drinker suitable for all livestock. Fisher Alvin's best selling mains pressure trough
www.hisltd.co.uk www.hisltd.co.uk
 
josh said:
Are they like this? https://gibsonsonline.ie/product/jf...Q2Ry192PhXWOpEE6XYkRxzo0o8_BlBHhoCeNYQAvD_BwE

View attachment 132550
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Timber2 said:
Using these JFC ones with no issues.

View attachment 132551
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We had the bigger ones in the calf pens here(6 to a pen) swapped to the smaller ones and find them a lot better, small calves + big drinker means that the water isn’t getting consumed quick enough and ends up stale whereas the smaller drinker is a more regular change of majority of the water so fresher
 
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