Rural News 5 Mar 2013

Page 59

Rural News // march 5, 2013

south island field days 11

Pen waterer keeps calves healthy GARE T H G I L L AT T

MILKBAR PEN waterers are helping a South Island farmer raise herd replacements. Reuben Allan milks 1650 Jersey-Friesian cross cows on a 470ha platform at Waimate, South Canterbury. The property is a four-seasonold conversion from a drystock farm. Allan started it to generate better and more stable earnings off the family farm. He rears about 500 heifer replacements each year to improve the herd’s overall performance in an eight bay 360m2 shed and says when looking for water solutions for raising calves he wanted something easy to maintain and keep clean, and something that could provide calves with their water requirements

without overloading them with disease. He installed eight Milk Bar pen waterer water feeders and will add more when he expands the calf

of the covered feeders and riverstone flooring, which Milk Bar staff suggested. “We haven’t had to worry about rotovirus or pneumonia or anything

“Calves are naturally inquisitive so they found the water pretty quickly.” shed from eight bays to 12. The 8L waterers are 575 x 330 x 275mm partly enclosed containers fitted with a float valve and piping. Milk Bar says the design eliminates most form of contamination and ensures calves can access clean water at all times due to smaller volumes of water in the water feeder. Large mobs of calves can lead to health problems, but Allan has only seen the odd case of scours in his replacement calves, Milk Bar says. He attributes this to the use

routine and there’s not much we have to do to them.” Allan is expanding the shed to 12 bays this season and says that he will be adding more Milk Bar pen waterers. Tel. 0800 104 119 www.milkbar.co.nz

like that. The calves always seem to be in good health.” And though the water feeder is covered, Allan says it didn’t take much for calves to find the water. “Calves are naturally inquisitive so they found the water pretty quickly.” Installing feeders required setting up waterlines and then clamping feeders to partitions with the built-on clamps. Allan says clean-up is also easy. “We just need to clean them at the end of the season. It’s part of the cleaning

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Rural News 5 Mar 2013 by Rural News Group - Issuu