Braden Start Bottle

topside1 · #1 01/24/08, 06:35 PM

Thanks to a fellow member recommended this calf raising tool, well I bought one and it arrived today. I have read a few articles mentioning the bottle all comments were positive. What caught my eye the most was the fact the rumen develops faster and the calves can be wean eariler. Anxious to put it to use on my next couple bottle calves. Any comments good or bad would be appreciated...thanks

topside1 · #2 01/25/08, 03:30 PM

bump

JSIA · #3 01/25/08, 04:54 PM

IMO these things are a joke. The calves waste a lot of grain because the bite the nipple and don't always get there mouth over the end to catch the grain. In return it ends up on the ground. Some calves get the grain in there mouth and spit it out because they don't know how to chew it. If you get humid weather like us and over fill them with molasses coated feed they will cog up. They just don't fit our operation.
We raise calves in hutches and at 3 days they are drinking from a pail. The pails are side by side in the hutch. After they get done drinking they are always looking for more and stick there nose in the other pail and find the grain. Usually there eating grain by 5 days old.

So the moral of the story...we have 2 taking up space in the corner of the barn and glad we didn't buy enough for all the hutches.

JMHO

TulleyJohnMyers · #4 01/25/08, 05:23 PM

I bought one and it just didn't work for me.....seems like the calfs will eat it out of a bucket the same time as out of the bottle....do not think they work as soon as the bucket really.....as with the bucket they can mouth the feed and if it drops out will fall back in the bucket.......I buy the buckets that hang on the fence as the calfs grow you can raise the bucket up to next row...plus they hold a lot more then a bottle....and 1/ 4 a cheap.....tjm

Braden Start Bottle - Cattle

topside1 · #5 01/25/08, 05:25 PM

thanks for your honesty..

Cat · #6 01/25/08, 09:21 PM

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to but if it's what I think it is, a grain feeder that has a large hole in the nipple for grain to be fed, the dairy I buy my calves from uses them. They just put a gallon can under it to catch the spilled grain. Can't tell you anything about how well they work but they use it in all their jugs.

topside1 · #7 01/26/08, 08:12 AM

Thanks Cat for your repsonse. For a while there I thought I bought a $15 gimmick, well I still may have. Time will tell, on the plus side my Barred Rocks will gladly help clean up grain spillage. I bottle feed milk for about two weeks, then shift to the milk bucket. Maybe I should train them to the bucket earlier then maybe the calves will eat grain quicker. Right now my calves are generally eating grain consistantly at the two week mark. Possibly my calves will eat grain quicker if they are on the bucket quicker??? Makes sense... I know I'm repeating myself...Old age,,,,Just trying to learn.

dosthouhavemilk · #8 01/26/08, 12:06 PM

The school used a couple of those...or rather had them. I had a hard time convincing the assistant herd manager that the calves ought to have access to Primer 1 from day 1. After he left and I took over the care of the calves I had those in the pens first thing. They did mouth them and there was some spillage, but it seemed to work fine.
Here at home, our calves have a dish with Primer 1 in it from day two or so. After their bottle we put some in their mouth for them to chew on. OUr calves are switched to buckets by one or two weeks.

JSIA · #9 01/26/08, 06:12 PM

I just put them on buckets at 2-3 days because I hate bottle feeding. It's very time consuming. And it will be very time consuming when we have 30 on the ground in under 60 days this summer, and 1/4 of them being swiss!! They also seem to figure out the bucket faster as they aren't sucking for two weeks. Dad bottle feeds for weeks on end and it takes them calves a couple days to figure out the bucket. But my calves usually figure it out in the first feeding, just dump it in and leave, don't stand there.

my $.02 worth what you paid for it

dosthouhavemilk · #10 01/27/08, 09:34 AM

Oddly enough, or not, it seems our calves (Jersey and Jersey/Norwegian Red crosses) take to the bucket more easily if they've been on a bottle for two weeks. They used to be switched over at less than a week but it was a bit of work.
We use bottle holders so bottles aren't all that inconvenient.
Then again, we aren't freshening all that many at once. Though we will have quite a few in a three month span this summer. Most will be sold quick if bull calves. I have buyers lined up already.