Evening Chores Procedure

  1. Feed calves – start mixing milk no earlier than 4:30pm
    • Feed bank barn calves and get milk replacer
    • Mix milk, fill bottles and fill water buckets
      • On very cold days, fill a bucket with hot water for thawing calf buckets
      • Rinse all equipment used for milk replacer (milk replacer bucket, mixing barrel, drill mixer)
    • Feed milk bottles
      • Distribute to hutches first
        • White clothespins get milk in the evening only
        • Yellow or Orange clothespins get 4 pint bottles, others get 5 pint bottles
        • Blue and Green clothespins do not get milk
      • Feed bull pen calves
      • Return to hutches and help any calves that didn’t drink completely
    • Top off hutch water buckets – older calves need a full bucket, younger calves half bucket is usually enough
    • Feed grain in calf barn – one scoop per calf
    • Refill grain buckets for weaned calves – light blue clothespins get sweet unique and dark blue clothespin calves get legendairy pellets
    • Give clavamox pills to calves that are being treated – purple or red clothespins, also noted in Slack and on the feeding board
    • Wash bottles and all equipment
      • Rinse with warm water to remove all foreign material.  Note especially that nipples need to be rinsed and scrubbed to remove saliva, milk, and any other substances
      • Wash bottles, nipples and pill guns in hot water using some dish detergent and a 1/3 scoop of chlorine
      • Use wash water to clean buckets and milk mixer
      • Set bottles and nipples to dry.  Shake excess water off of nipples.
  2. Clean freestalls in milking barn using the rake
  3. Push feed – milking cows, dry cows, heifers

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