Simple and easy, the Milk Bar Colour Code system allows you to identify calf and feeder at a glance.
For smaller farms where you have one or two calves per week, allocate each calf its own colour.
For larger farms, allocate all calves born in a week the same colour.
Match feeder tag to hutch tag and your done!
Individual to group
The key to successfully raising healthy calves in this popular system is to control the age of the teat for each calf.
The Follow the Teat System allows for farms of all sizes to successfully make groups of calves who will be feeding at a similar speed while controlling the drinking speed from birth to weaning.
Protocol:
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Fit a new Milk Bar Teat to your Milk Bar single feeder. Use the Milk Bar Colour Code system and tag the feeder and the hutch.
This feeder stays with this calf for the training period.
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When you have enough calves to make a group, remove the Milk Bar Teat from each of the single feeders and insert them into the group feeder. This group feeder now stays with these calves until weaning.
- Place a new Milk Bar Teat into the now un needed Milk Bar single feeder ready for the next calf.
Important: Ensuring calves get enough milk volume is important.
Make sure calves have no more than a two week age difference in your groups.
Bigger calves need more milk so its best to group large calves together.
Individual till weaning
The key to success in this system is to keep the same Milk Bar Teat with the same calf from birth till weaning. This means that when the calf is young she is feeding from a new Milk Bar Teat where the controlled flow is so crucial to boost immunity. If you swap feeders between calves there is a danger of giving a feeder
to a young calf that has an older, more worn teat. This teat will be feeding at a slightly faster flow which the older calf can manage but, for the young calf it can lead to health problems we want to avoid!
Its simple to use the Milk Bar Colour Code system. At a glance you can make sure that each calf has her own feeder.
Protocol:
- Fit a new Milk Bar Teat to your single feeder.
- Either number or colour code the feeder and the hutch. This feeder stays with this calf until weaning.
- After weaning, replace the old, worn teat with a new Milk Bar Teat ready for the next calf.
Pairs or Groups from Day 1
There is a lot of work being done around housing calves in twos from day one.
This system is often referred to as the Buddy System.
Studies in the US and Canada show improvements in feed and weight uptake and the cognitive development in calves raised in pairs. The biggest drawback for calves in twos or groups is that if they are fed from a bucket or a fast flow teat, they cross suckle vigorously. The damage cross suckling causes can have a long term impact to the calfs future production capability so it is especially important they are fed with a Milk Bar Teat from Day 1 until weaning to control the flow.
Protocol:
- Fit new Milk Bar Teats to two single feeders or a Milk Bar 2 Compartment.
- Either number or colour code the feeder and the hutch. This feeder stays with these calves until weaning, or until they transition into a larger group.
- If you move them to a larger group, use the Follow the Teat System and transfer the Milk Bar Teats from the Milk Bar 2 Compartment to the larger group feeder.