How to Feed Your Calf with the help of Feeding Bucket

Productivity of a lifetime is when the calf is born. Calves like human babies certainly need to have a proper childhood so that they can become successful adults. Calves are very important in any possible dairy operation needing attention and care. There are various useful tricks and tips which can be found along the way.

The Feeding Procedure

The goal of the first 1-2 weeks of rearing the calf will be to have healthy and strong calf Feeding Bucket which is drinking its own milk with the liquid phase being important period of the calves growth and health. Major farms have an accelerated growth program with high pre-weaning intake of nutrient for daily weight gains which is recommended in the first few weeks. This will increase the importance of encouraging the calf to drink on its own at earliest opportunity

Milk is digested in the abomasum stomach which is one of the four stomachs where milk is digested. This is the only stomach which is functioning at birth. The rumen is not yet properly functioning. When the calf is sucking for milk, milk will bypass the rumen passing directly into abomasums.

Training The Calves To Drink

Ideally calf should be given milk right from bottle or a teat bucket as it will slow down the ingestion rate of the milk and will add more saliva than it occurs while the animal is drinking from bucket. With the use of teat, it will encourage the animal to use the natural sucking behavior as compared with the drinking directly from the bucket without a teat which can in-turn lead to digestive problems. Please make sure that the height of the teat is the normal nose height to the calf and that calf keeps her neck and head up while drinking.

Well you certainly do require patience and skill for training the calves to drink from a teat. The calf should be held as well as guided gently towards the teat. This can be achieved by letting the calf suck the finger of the handler and then guiding the calf mouth into the teat.  Some calves may learn fast while others may take time to learn. You do need to have patience.

If you are allowing a calf to drink from a teat then you are reducing cross-sucking between calves. Never forget that good hygiene of the teats is also very important for the health of the calf.

Milk from cow’s first milkings after calving is certainly called transition milk containing more antibodies as well as nutrients than in later lactation. It is recommended that colostrums is given during the first day of life followed by pasteurized milk in the next three to five days.