Correspondent
MALONE
Not all of the bugs have been worked out yet but much of what had been bugging the calf-feeding program at 3-D Dairy’s new facilities in northeastern Fond du Lac County has been cleared away with a computerized feeding station for the dairy calves. Fifty-five toured a calf and heifer raising facilities in east central Wisconsin sponsored by Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin.
“A very inviting idea” is how Linda Diederichs described the concept and equipment she learned about during a visit to Minnesota. What appealed to her was the consistency of the milk replacer formulation compared to the inconsistencies likely to crop up when several different humans handle the feeding chore. She was weary of scrubbing up to 60 feeding pails each day as calf numbers began to increase as herd numbers built at the farm. The death of a number of calves earlier this year could have been due to the use of unclean buckets that spread pathogens.
Diederichs, her husband John, and his brothers Joe and Bill and their families operate 3-D Dairy, which had a milking herd of 600 cows in 2000, added 200 in 2005 and has recently added 600 more for a total of nearly 1,400. With the help of 13 employees from outside the family, 3-D Dairy crops about 2,000 acres to feed its dairy cattle.
Linda Diederichs credits a new employee, a 21-year-old man, for lots of help in learning the ins and outs of the computer programs which govern the feeding of the heifer calves from the time they are about 10 days old until weaning at just under seven weeks. The calves are kept for about 20 more days before being shipped to a custom grower near Wittenberg in western Shawano County.
Despite some surprises that were due to failure to properly update the computer as calves were moved between groups or other changes were made, Diederichs said the new arrangement has been working extremely well. One indication is that the calves are gaining an average of 1.73 pounds per day compared to the 1.22 pounds that, according to their veterinarian, is typical with feeding milk replacer.
Getting technical support quickly when confronting computer snags has been a problem but Diederichs admitted that most of the breakdowns are due to her lack of acquaintance with what needs to be done to assure that the computer operates as intended. The problem has not been an operational breakdown of the computerized equipment but rather a failure to update instructions and information adequately, she pointed out.
Two of the GEA Feed Technologies JV 600 units, part of the equipment lineup at Westfalia Surge, are located in a mixing room at the center of a new 220-foot by 30-foot calf barn which has four calf group pens with access to the computerized feeder. The 3-D Dairy calf barn, which was quite bright inside even on a dank October day with rainfall on the way, also has 40 individual pens – less than half of which were occupied on the day of the tour – to house calves for 7 days to 10 days after birth.
While the supplier indicates that a unit, each with two feeding stations, can feed up to 60 calves, Diederichs doesn’t want to have more than 25 in either of the two groups that have access to one feeding stall each in the pen. Her self-set restriction would allow 3-D to feed up to 100 calves from its two units at any time compared to the 120 suggested by the supplier.
The computer-controlled feeding concept is a variation on the group feeding approach often used by graziers who concentrate their calving into a few months per year and at other dairies which have large numbers of calves at any one time. Instead of having calves drink from multiple nipples on a barrel or tank, the GEA unit provides individualized feeding by calves as they enter the stall which gives them access to the nipple.
Each calf is identified from her electronic tag as she enters the stall, activating the automated mixing of the high-protein milk replacer into water at 110 degrees. A maximum of two liters is provided at any one time and each calf is permitted up to eight entries per day to obtain her allotted portion. The mixed batch is taken back if a calf stops drinking. A few calves have entered the stall as often as 33 times to 45 times per 24 hours in hopes of being served.
One variation on the unit has a special container that holds an electrolyte formula dispensed to calves authorized to get it. The overhead bulk tank holds 77 pounds of milk replacer and the system generates a wash-down four times per day.
Another of the GEA units, the JV 640, is designed for dispensing milk or liquid feeds to calves in the same fashion. John Diederichs noted that 3-D Dairy doesn’t like the costs and the risks of disease that might occur with pasteurized waste milk and liquid feed by-products from cheese manufacturing plants or other processors.
The computer system generates a daily record of how much a calf has consumed. Among the things she has not yet learned about the system, Linda Diederichs confessed, is what kind of a timetable is used to allow a calf to feed other than knowing that up to eight feedings are allowed every 24 hours.
“I loved the challenge of starting to use this,” Linda Diederichs told a group of women on the tour. “It was fun and frustrating at the same time.” Two of her rewards are the accelerated growth of the calves and “how strong they are” when completing the feeding program.
“I was talking about giving it up,” she remarked, referring to the daily feeding of the calves under the previous conditions. Instead of having to cleanse up to 60 milk replacer buckets per day, that number is less than two dozen needed for the youngest calves.
Asked if it would also be possible to use a computer to measure the per-calf intake of starter or other dry and solid feeds, John Diederichs noted that this has been tested and tried at a few places but did not prove to be practical or satisfactory. To better prepare its calves for the transition to the customer raiser, 3-D Dairy provides dry feeds to its weaned calves until they are about 66 days old, thereby not using one of the four stations which is available for the liquid feeding.
Based on the daily custom grower rates, John Diederichs said 3-D Dairy would prefer to keep its calves at home until they are at least 6 months old. Toward that end, they are planning construction of a new heifer barn. Though they hoped to have it built before winter sets in that is not going to pan out.
Regarding a question about the potential of freezing in the calf barn during the winter, Diederichs said it should not be a concern inside the mixing room because of the in-floor heating. He added that a heat lamp is a possibility but it also creates a fire hazard. The calves could be provided with more volume per day to help them offset lower temperatures. Linda Diederichs noted that the calves are also provided with coats as necessary.
