Author Archives: jeff

Newborn Calf Procedure

Leave a reply

Here are the steps for caring for newborn calves:

  1. Remove calf from calving pen – Newborn calves should be removed from the calving pen as soon as possible to minimize intake of contaminated manure.
  2. Feed colostrum – bottle if possible, tube if necessary
  3. Treatments for Heifer calves only:
    • First Defense bolus
    • Inforce 3 nasal vaccine
    • Ear tags
  4. Move to Hutch (female calves) or bull calf pen (male calves)
  5. Wash equipment – bottles, tube feeder, bolus gun, colostrum container (bucket)
    • If regular calf feeding equipment will be washed soon, just rinse it well, and save it to be washed with the rest of the calf feeding equipment

Fetching Cows

Leave a reply

Cows are to be fetched, according to this procedure, three times per day.

Approximate fetch times:

  • 6am
  • 2pm
  • 10pm

Fetch procedure:

  1. Fetch and work through the robot, all cows in the “Always Milk” selection
  2. Fetch all red and yellow cows in the “Always Fetch” selection
  3. Fetch all red cows in the rest of the herd (“No Selection”)
  4. Move due-for-milking sort pen cows to the holding pen.  Any that have mobility problems should be worked through the robot

Selections are chosen in the Status / Milking Queue page by changing the drop down box that normally shows “No Selection”.

Evening chores should also include fetching of red cows only.

Feed Table Update

Leave a reply

We are changing the feed tables per Nate Keifer spec.  Only 2 tables – one for 1st lactation, one for the rest.

Fresh cows by these instructions:  start the fresh cows with 5 lbs of pellets, and the heifers with 4 lbs of pellets on day 1.  Hold these levels until day 4, if production is climbing allow the cows to ramp up to 8 lbs and the heifers to 7 lbs thru day 14 – then switch to the “normal” chart.  If they are not climbing in production by day 4 hold at the start up level until production starts increasing and then allow the ramp up to occur.

Also changed the dispensing rate to 1.0lb per visit

feed-table-nk2016-09-28-lact2 feed-table-nk2016-09-28-lact1

Here is Nate’s feed table

feed-table-definition-nk20160928

Delpro Feeding Parameters

Leave a reply

Here are screenshots of all of the parameters that affect feeding in Delpro:

Feed parameters in the system controllersystem-controller-feed-parameters

Feed parameters associated with each type of feed:feed-page

General feed parameters:feed-parameters

Feed parameters on each feeding station:feed-station-page

Feed table assignments also have some parameters: feed-table-parameters

If you get all of these right, your feeding system might work correctly.

Feed Table Change – Increase Feed by 1 lb

Leave a reply

In an attempt to get more traffic to the robots, we are going to increase the pellets by 1lb in the robot, and reduced the energy in the bunk accordingly.  We are also reducing the amount of challenge for some of the first lactation tables.  A lot of heifers were getting much more pellets than they needed.

Here are the new feed tables:

Feed Table - Normal Mar 2016 Feed Table - Challenge March 2016 Feed Table - Challenge-Lact1 - Mar 2016 Feed Table - LateLact-Lact1 - Mar 2016 Feed Table - MidLact-Lact1 - Mar 2016

Changes to Feeding Parameters

Leave a reply

We found that many of our cows were not getting as much feed as they should.  Drilling down, we found several reasons:
  • Our maximum amount of feed per visit was too low (3.5lb).  High producing cows were not getting all of their feed.  We increased this to 5.5lb.  This allows a cow to get as  much as 11lb on days that she only visits the robot 2X.  The only potential problem with this would be cows eating too much concentrate at a given time – we don’t think we are anywhere near this problem.
  • Calculating rations once every 7 days – this is not often enough.  Cows milk production changes too much in 7 days.  If that 7th day is a low one by chance, it leaves her without enough feed for the whole next week.  Delaval informed us that the reason to not calculate more often is because of errors in the Ration Calculation Log – cows that are in Step Up or Step Down mode will generate an error in the log.  This was causing too much confusion for farmers, so Delaval moved the calculation out to 7 days.  This gives enough time for the step up or down to complete before the next calculation.  My belief is that if I calculate every day, the changes will be small enough that I won’t have many cows stepping up more than 1 day.
  • Dispensing rate – this can be calculated by max dispense / stall time.  5.5lb / 8 min => 0.685 lb/min.  However we have to allow time for when the cow’s head is up, and time at the end after all but one cup are off.  We are going to try a 0.8 lb/min rate.
  • Feed table timing – many cows were going above the 10lb feeding rate before the feed table started at 21 days.  The table will not start at 14 days.

Much of this data was obtained by using an Excel tool that generated graphs like this:

924 Graph

Bedding Calves

Leave a reply

Calves need to be bedded enough that they have a fairly dry place to lie down. Too little bedding will keep them from staying warm and clean. Too much bedding wastes straw and fills the floor of the pen too quickly.

Calf hutches should be bedded 1-3 times per week as needed. Young calves should always be bedded with straw. Older calves (weaned) can be alternated between straw and sawdust.

Cut a bale open in front of the hutches. Put 1-3 slices of straw in each hutch, placing it in the center of the back 2/3rds of the hutch. The calves will naturally spread it to the rest of the hutch.

To bed with sawdust, bring the skid loader with sawdust in between the hutches. Shovel sawdust as needed into the hutches.

Calf barn should be bedded 1-3 times per week as needed. It is most efficient to bed with 3 bales. 1 in the small pen, and 2 in the large pen. Often the bales can be thrown over the feed bunk in such a way that entering the pen is not necessary.

Jeff’s Morning Routine

Leave a reply
  1. Feed Bristol
    • 2.5 bags of pellets for the calves
    • Push up silage for both groups
    • Check hay
    • Check waterers
  2. Check Feed in old barn
    • Push up and check dry cow feed
    • Push up and check heifer feed
    • Give a little bit of hay to the steers in the grain feeder
    • Check for fresh cows
  3. Mark feed amounts for all recipes
    • Dry Cows should have a little bit left over every day.  Adjust for fresh cows and dry off cows.
    • If milking cows are cleaned up before 10am, feed three batches of 4500, otherwise feed two batches of 5100