From the road there is nothing special about the new barn nestled in the hills of Northern Vermont. Once you step inside you notice a few things that sets it apart from other cow barns. Just inside the front doors next to the walkway into the parlor is the maternity pens. Plenty of fresh clean bedding and only two cows per pen. Next to the pen is a calf pen with higher walls to keep the drafts off of the newborn calves. Once the calf is dry and has had colostrum from its mother it is taken and covered with a thinsulate calf coat to keep it warm. The calf is put in a pen with other calves, assigned a collar with her own ID chip in the collar. For a few days the calf is shown where the feeding stall is located. 24/7 any time the calf enters the stall a reader reads the ID chip and behind the wall the Mix Master comes to life. Dry powdered milk replacer is measured out and drops into a typical looking blender. If extra vitamins or medicine has been prescribed for the calf it is dispensed as well. Warm, 100 degree, water is added and is then mixed by the blender. The calf then sucks on the nipple that is on its side of the wall. If the calf does not consume all it was offered the replacer is kept for a limited amount of time until the next calf stops by to eat. If no other calf stops in to eat the leftover is dumped, the mixer washes itself, and is ready with a fresh batch. Any calf who does not eat the machine sends a message to the herdsman office and the staff gets a readout of calves needing attention. While the calf is eating weigh sensors in the stall floor record the calves weight and adds it too the calves record in the computer. Some different drawing a pail of warm water, mixing by hand, carrying the pail out to the calf and waiting for it to drink. This automated feeder has 16 calves in one of the two pens it feeds. If a person could feed a calf in 4 minutes over 2 hours a day would be spent on just feeding. With this system not only are calves showing a faster growth rate, better health, the person caring for them can now focus on any calves that may need a little extra attention.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:23:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015