Calves
Use wheels when collecting water
An easy way to record key health treatments
Helping small calves reach the starter grain
Be a little bit inconsistent with your calves
Break the ice in the buckets
Making windbreaks for hutches
Adequate water temperature for cleaning?
Keep your head up!
Keeping track of which calves are treated
Insulating the water hydrant to keep it from freezing
Cover the refrigerated colostrum
Make a medical kit on wheels for the barn with smooth concrete
Loosen up the frozen grain clumps
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Use wheels when collecting water |
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Many calf operations feed milk and water in the same pail. The water is dumped out prior to milk feeding at least twice a day. In some facilities it is not feasible to just dump the water. That is, it must be collected and then taken to an appropriate spot to dump. Adirondak Farms uses a two-wheeled bag or barrel cart with a thirty-gallon barrel attached with bungee cords. The top is cut out of the barrel. As the worker walks along trailing the cart one water pail after another is dumped into the barrel.The two-wheeled cart with large rubber tires is light. It maneuvers easily in tight quarters. And, even when the barrel contains a lot of water it is still easy to dump into a floor drain.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
May 2004 | |
| An easy way to record key health treatments |
In a recent magazine article mention was made of using notches in the bottom of plastic ear tags as a way to record key health treatments. The most obvious application for calf raisers is notching the bottom of the ear tag each time a calf or heifer is treated for respiratory illness. Two or more notches should raise a red flag if she gets sick yet a third time. Do we really want to keep this heifer that will surely produce less than her full genetic potential when she calves?
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
July 2004 | |
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Helping small calves reach the starter grain |
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We want young calves to start exploring starter grain as early as possible. Normally because we want to change this grain frequently we only put a small amount in their pails. Small calves have a hard time reaching the bottom of these pails. Pam’s solution is to drop a plate into the top of a 10-quart pail. For the first few weeks the starter grain just sits on top of the plate close to the top within easy reach for the calf. As the calf matures the plate is taken out and pail is used normally.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
May 2002 | |
| Be a little bit inconsistent with your calves! |
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How about permission to be less than perfect? Sounds just a little sinful. But animal behavior scientists tell us that a small amount of inconsistency in care and handling of calves can be beneficial! It reduces their novelty stress responses. That could mean healthier calves. So, go out and be just a little inconsistent and feel sinful!
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
May 2002 | |
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Break the ice in the buckets |
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Only a few calf raisers have climate-controlled facilities or live in climates that never freeze. The rest of us care for calves in facilities that get freezing cold in the winter months. That means water can freeze in buckets. In winter weather many calf raisers try to dump buckets before the water freezes. For those days when schedules just don’t cooperate and ice forms in buckets try keeping a rubber mallet handy. These rubber mallets are purchased at auto supply stores. Until the ice forms a solid mass a few smacks with a mallet usually will crack it out. Compared to a stick, stone or frozen ground a rubber mallet is much less likely to dent metal pails and crack plastic ones. And, having tried breaking the ice out with my hand I know that a mallet certainly saves on the hands. The only disadvantage of buying one for use with calves is that the guys from the shop tend to “borrow” it and forget to return it.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
December 2003 | |
| Making windbreaks for hutches |
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Not all of us are inside during windy winter storms. Many of us have outdoor hutch housing. Most of us experience strong winter winds. And, it’s not nice to discover hutches in the neighbor’s hedgerow or dooryard when we arrive in the morning. At least two nearby farms have taken to parking large equipment on the windward side of their hutches in the winter. Big ten-wheeler trucks are a great windbreak. Other pieces of infrequently used large equipment that can stand exposure to the weather work well also. One heifer grower stores the winter supply of wrapped bales of straw on the windward side. Windbreaks don’t have to be trees.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
May 2005 | |
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Adequate water temperature for cleaning? |
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Most of us can’t be bothered to check the temperature of our wash water when cleaning up bottles and buckets. But, we really do know that when the temperature gets under 120 the milk solids begin to come out of suspension. They then stick back on to the equipment we are trying to get clean. Solution? You may have seen pictures in the March ’03 issues of Dairy Herd Management of Pam Sojda’s “floating hermometer.” A small square of Styrofoam just below the head of the thermometer keeps it floating head up in the wash water so the dial is easy to read. Pam has even marked the crucial 120??line with a black ear tag pen. That way even some of us sight-impaired persons can see at a glance if the water temperature is adequate for effective cleaning.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
October 2003 | |
| Keep your head up! |
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Heads up – yours! Avoid getting smashed in the face. Remember how quickly a calf can move. When restraining a calf as described above, keep your face well away from the top of the calf’s head (the poll). In a contest between her poll and your face, you will always lose.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
September 2003 | |
| Keeping track of which calves are treated |
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We have to treat some sick calves with antibiotics. It’s important to keep good written records of which calves are treated and the nature of the treatment. It’s also convenient to have information right at each calf’s hutch or pen. Which antibiotic was used? How many treatments have been given? Think about using colored plastic ties fastened to the pen or hutch. One color = one antibiotic. One mark with a permanent marker (e.g., ear tag pen) = one treatment. Thanks go to the health staff at Calf Source in Wisconsin.
| Author |
Health staff at Calf Source in Wisconsin |
Date |
September 2003 |
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| Insulating the water hydrant to keep it from freezing |
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Josh Kilmartin from Fultonville, NY built an insulated box around his water hydrant next to the hutches. It’s large enough to keep the hydrant from freezing and plenty of space for hoses to reach all the hutches. Hoses are used to water calves all winter long. The box is well insulated and warmed by several heat lamps during freezing weather.
| Author |
Josh Kilmartin from Fultonville, NY |
Date |
February 2003 | |
| Cover the refrigerated colostrum |
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When refrigerating colostrum try covering it. The cover (lid, nipple, foil, and plastic wrap) will inhibit the formation of a cream scum. This often-discarded scum contains a lot of fat. This fat contains vitamins A, D and E. A calf is born with little or no reserves of these fat soluable vitamins. She depends on the fat in colostrum for these vitamins, especially vitamin E that stimulates the action of the immune system.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
February 2003 | |
| Make a medical kit on wheels for the barn with smooth concrete |
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This month’s tip comes from Cindy White from Luxemburg, WI. She faced the problem of too much running back and forth when treating sick calves. It was hard to carry all the right medication, syringes, needles, markers, pencil, notepad, human pain medicine, etc. She has barns for calves with smooth concrete floors. He fixed up a tool chest on wheels with the medications on top. The drawer below holds extra syringes and supplies. The large bottom compartment has a pail, waste container, and large medicine containers. Biggest benefits? No forgotten calves – each one is treated right now. Calves treated correctly – each one receives the proper medication, not just the one I have in my pocket. Fewer steps. The same idea can be applied to outdoor operations by making a “meds. kit” that can be carried or loaded into a cart or truck.
| Author |
Cindy White from Luxemburg, WI |
Date |
February 2004 | |
| Loosen up the frozen grain clumps |
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Cold weather often makes textured starter grains clump up in grain pails. We have found that a three-prong gardening tool works well to loosen up this grain. The prongs are far enough apart to avoid clogging. And, only a quick twist of the wrist is needed to make the frozen grain loose enough to be eaten easily by calves.
| Author |
Pam Sojda,
Sam Leadley |
Date |
October 2001 | |
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