00;00;11;03 - 00;00;20;19 Brad And welcome to The Moos Room. Just Brad today again. But I think spring is coming. We've been getting. 00;00;20;23 - 00;00;23;05 Brad Our calf barn ready for calving. 00;00;23;05 - 00;00;25;28 Brad Today is March 5th. 00;00;26;01 - 00;00;26;24 Brad When I record. 00;00;26;24 - 00;00;27;24 Brad This. 00;00;27;27 - 00;00;28;28 Brad We're first calf. 00;00;28;28 - 00;00;42;01 Brad Is due a week from now, so who knows when it might come. We've got about 120 that are due through the end of May. So we've got quite a few dairy calves and some beef crossbred calves. I'm going to be doing. 00;00;42;01 - 00;00;42;25 Brad Some research on. 00;00;42;25 - 00;00;50;23 Brad Those calves at a new product. Just kind of demonstrate, see if, see if it can help reduce some. 00;00;50;23 - 00;00;51;12 Brad Scours. 00;00;51;12 - 00;00;54;01 Brad In, in our calves. It's kind of interesting. 00;00;54;01 - 00;00;56;07 Brad It's a more of a natural product. 00;00;56;09 - 00;01;22;17 Brad That we're going to talk about now. Kind of talk about that another day. But I wanted to talk about calves again. You know, I feeding calves. It's always an interesting topic for me. I found this study that just came out looking at feeding calves with an open bucket versus a nipple bucket. So a pretty simple study. I thought it was kind of cool just to see what would happen. 00;01;22;19 - 00;01;29;23 Brad You know, we've fed calves with nipple buckets when I did our calf feeding study. We use nipple buckets. 00;01;29;23 - 00;01;31;18 Brad For about three years and. 00;01;31;18 - 00;01;49;10 Brad Feeding all of the calves that we did. So I thought it was kind of interesting. And we'll kind of dive into this study just to see what it what it showed and if, if there was any difference. I know quite a few farms have fed calves with just a bucket or a pail. Dump the milk in the pail and they drink it. 00;01;49;12 - 00;01;52;12 Brad And so this study set out to. 00;01;52;14 - 00;01;55;26 Brad Compare the performance and behavior of calves. 00;01;55;28 - 00;02;01;10 Brad With these two different feeding systems. Over 70% of. 00;02;01;12 - 00;02;02;20 Brad Dairy operations. 00;02;02;20 - 00;02;04;19 Brad In the US use bucket. 00;02;04;19 - 00;02;05;18 Brad Feeders, and. 00;02;05;18 - 00;02;25;04 Brad 71% of those kind of rely on open bucket. So just a bucket or a pail dump the milk in in the calf drinks it. And why is that? It comes down to most efficient. Most of these farms that use open buckets are rapid. 00;02;25;04 - 00;02;26;08 Brad Delivery. 00;02;26;10 - 00;02;34;23 Brad Kind of this operational efficiency. How fast can we feed calves, dump the milk in and they drink it. 00;02;34;24 - 00;02;36;19 Brad Obviously there's. 00;02;36;21 - 00;02;40;17 Brad Calves possess a strong biological. 00;02;40;23 - 00;02;41;08 Brad Urge. 00;02;41;08 - 00;02;52;00 Brad To suckle. So suckle something or suck on another calf. So trying to figure out, you know, are we sacrificing calf. 00;02;52;00 - 00;02;53;11 Brad Welfare. 00;02;53;13 - 00;02;53;20 Brad And. 00;02;53;20 - 00;02;58;10 Brad Natural behavior for some sort of operational. 00;02;58;12 - 00;03;02;14 Brad Convenience or fast feeding method? So this study looked at feeding. 00;03;02;14 - 00;03;03;24 Brad Calves that were individually. 00;03;03;24 - 00;03;05;26 Brad How so? All individual. 00;03;05;26 - 00;03;07;11 Brad They did it for eight weeks. 00;03;07;11 - 00;03;13;13 Brad So calves were weaned about 56 days of life. They got all six. 00;03;13;13 - 00;03;14;12 Brad Liters of milk. 00;03;14;12 - 00;03;27;13 Brad So little less than two gallons per day kind of divided into two meals. They fed at 7:00 in the morning at 5:00 at night, and then they also had ad libitum access. 00;03;27;13 - 00;03;29;20 Brad To water and starter. 00;03;29;22 - 00;03;30;27 Brad So that's kind. 00;03;30;27 - 00;03;32;07 Brad Of important. 00;03;32;09 - 00;03;34;08 Brad As well to have access. 00;03;34;08 - 00;03;35;27 Brad To water and starter. 00;03;35;29 - 00;03;57;15 Brad As well as being fed milk. So then they just fed these calves with an open bucket or nipple bucket. The nipple bucket that they used was just a commercial nipple bucket. This was a milk bar. There's other folks out there. I used a system when we were feeding calves, but this was, a milk bar. So they did a lots of behavioral measurements. 00;03;57;15 - 00;04;01;15 Brad They took body weights, starter intake. 00;04;01;17 - 00;04;03;02 Brad Measured everything. 00;04;03;05 - 00;04;13;10 Brad What did we find? Well, if you think about time. So calves that were said in an open bucket. So they're fed. 00;04;13;10 - 00;04;14;09 Brad Three liters at. 00;04;14;09 - 00;04;20;06 Brad A time. It took less than two minutes. So 1.86 minutes to consume the. 00;04;20;06 - 00;04;22;14 Brad Three liters calves that were on a nipple. 00;04;22;14 - 00;04;29;17 Brad Bucket 5.33 minutes. So every stage of life, these calves always. 00;04;29;17 - 00;04;30;16 Brad Took longer to. 00;04;30;16 - 00;04;38;23 Brad Consume the milk with the nipple bucket. And that probably makes intuitive sense. You're you have this sucking reflex and it's just going to take that calf. 00;04;38;23 - 00;04;40;02 Brad Longer versus. 00;04;40;02 - 00;04;46;12 Brad Kind of inhaling the milk in less than two minutes. At two weeks of age, the calves. 00;04;46;12 - 00;04;46;25 Brad That were on. 00;04;46;25 - 00;04;47;05 Brad A nipple. 00;04;47;05 - 00;04;48;06 Brad Bucket were over. 00;04;48;06 - 00;04;52;21 Brad Six minutes. So there is some efficiency, although the calves. 00;04;52;21 - 00;04;53;25 Brad That were. 00;04;53;28 - 00;04;55;06 Brad Two weeks of age, about. 00;04;55;06 - 00;04;55;25 Brad 4.5. 00;04;55;25 - 00;05;07;25 Brad Minutes to consume out of a bucket. So when they're training in that early stage, it's still going to take longer. But if you look at eight weeks at weaning time, a little. 00;05;07;25 - 00;05;08;08 Brad Over a. 00;05;08;08 - 00;05;10;21 Brad Minute, a minute and a half on the open. 00;05;10;21 - 00;05;11;03 Brad Bucket. 00;05;11;03 - 00;05;13;08 Brad Versus a little less than five. 00;05;13;08 - 00;05;14;13 Brad So 4.75. 00;05;14;13 - 00;05;18;12 Brad Minutes to do that. So it just takes you're going to take three. 00;05;18;12 - 00;05;19;08 Brad More minutes per. 00;05;19;08 - 00;05;22;25 Brad Calf on a nipple bucket. You know, the nipple feeding. 00;05;22;25 - 00;05;23;24 Brad Kind of forces the. 00;05;23;24 - 00;05;27;24 Brad Calf to mimic this natural tube. 00;05;27;24 - 00;05;29;12 Brad Tongue formation. 00;05;29;14 - 00;05;36;02 Brad And that slowed the rate of drinking or rapid gulping down the. 00;05;36;02 - 00;05;37;07 Brad Milk when they were on an. 00;05;37;07 - 00;05;40;08 Brad Open bucket. So it takes more time. What about. 00;05;40;12 - 00;05;41;06 Brad Average daily. 00;05;41;06 - 00;05;43;12 Brad Gain? Well, they didn't find any difference. 00;05;43;12 - 00;05;43;23 Brad In average. 00;05;43;23 - 00;05;46;28 Brad Daily gain. These calves are growing about 1.4. 00;05;46;28 - 00;05;49;01 Brad Pounds per day. 00;05;49;03 - 00;05;52;18 Brad Average daily gain was the same whether they were fed open. 00;05;52;18 - 00;05;53;22 Brad Bucket or nipple. 00;05;53;22 - 00;05;58;18 Brad Bucket. And they didn't find any other difference between the calves in these two. 00;05;58;18 - 00;05;59;27 Brad Groups, whether. 00;06;00;02 - 00;06;09;19 Brad Hip height, heart girth and with or height. They were all identical across all of the calves, whether they were fed with an open bucket. 00;06;09;19 - 00;06;11;19 Brad Or nipple bucket. So really. 00;06;11;21 - 00;06;30;19 Brad The slower ingestion of milk didn't necessarily penalize physical growth, so didn't affect that. Well, what about starter intake? Despite the same growth, calves fed with an open bucket consumed. 00;06;30;19 - 00;06;33;10 Brad More pelleted starter than the. 00;06;33;10 - 00;06;40;20 Brad Calves that were fed the nipple bucket. So the calves that were fed with an open bucket are consuming about a. 00;06;40;20 - 00;06;45;19 Brad Quarter pound more starter intake per day. 00;06;45;22 - 00;06;46;03 Brad Than the. 00;06;46;03 - 00;06;47;25 Brad Calves that were. 00;06;47;27 - 00;06;53;25 Brad Fed with the nipple bucket. So it's interesting that more grain intake in. 00;06;53;25 - 00;06;55;00 Brad Calves that were fed in. 00;06;55;07 - 00;07;10;29 Brad An open bucket. Why might that be? But if you think about it, calves require about 10 to 20 minutes of constant suckling to feel full from from eating. So if they're. 00;07;10;29 - 00;07;12;14 Brad Drinking their. 00;07;12;17 - 00;07;14;07 Brad Milk from an open bucket. 00;07;14;07 - 00;07;15;06 Brad In under two. 00;07;15;06 - 00;07;18;25 Brad Minutes, they're still having this. 00;07;19;02 - 00;07;26;19 Brad Urge or this suckling urge has not really been met. Sort of calves redirect this. 00;07;26;21 - 00;07;30;07 Brad I guess, frustration by aggressively eating. 00;07;30;07 - 00;07;32;10 Brad Starter concentrate. 00;07;32;12 - 00;07;35;11 Brad And kind of engaging in. 00;07;35;18 - 00;07;37;29 Brad Abnormal oral behaviors. 00;07;38;01 - 00;07;45;03 Brad To self soothe. So the calves that had open buckets, fed in open buckets had higher. 00;07;45;06 - 00;07;45;24 Brad Starter. 00;07;45;24 - 00;07;53;03 Brad Intake. And that was really driven by frustration and not necessarily hunger. So looking at the. 00;07;53;03 - 00;07;54;02 Brad Behavior of the. 00;07;54;02 - 00;07;58;22 Brad Calves, they're just not full. They drink so fast. 00;07;58;24 - 00;08;03;25 Brad The calves aren't full so they redirect. Go start eating starter and consume more starter. 00;08;04;02 - 00;08;12;23 Brad Despite having the same growth. So if you look at some of these other behavioral aspects, when we looked at eating starter. So the calves in an open bucket spend. 00;08;12;23 - 00;08;13;02 Brad More. 00;08;13;02 - 00;08;14;05 Brad Time eating. 00;08;14;05 - 00;08;15;14 Brad Starter 3.7. 00;08;15;14 - 00;08;19;02 Brad Minutes versus almost two minutes. So they spend about. 00;08;19;02 - 00;08;19;18 Brad Another. 00;08;19;18 - 00;08;20;27 Brad Minute during a. 00;08;21;00 - 00;08;26;14 Brad Four hour time period that these calves were watched for observation. So more time. 00;08;26;14 - 00;08;26;26 Brad Eating. 00;08;26;26 - 00;08;28;04 Brad Starter, more time. 00;08;28;04 - 00;08;33;14 Brad Drinking water, self grooming was about the same. Maybe they had. 00;08;33;14 - 00;08;36;23 Brad Some other oral behaviors. They were doing. 00;08;36;23 - 00;08;49;18 Brad Something else, suckling on other things, basically trying to feel satisfied. So they spent in in this behavioral aspect, the calves that had a nipple bucket, again, like I said, they. 00;08;49;18 - 00;08;50;22 Brad Were spent more time. 00;08;50;22 - 00;08;56;20 Brad Consuming milk. They looked at rumination as well. So the open bucket calves. 00;08;56;20 - 00;08;58;01 Brad Spent more time. 00;08;58;04 - 00;08;59;06 Brad Ruminating during. 00;08;59;06 - 00;09;03;16 Brad A four hour time period. They spent more time eating starter. 00;09;03;18 - 00;09;06;29 Brad And nearly double the time. 00;09;07;02 - 00;09;08;15 Brad Performing. 00;09;08;18 - 00;09;26;15 Brad Non-Nutritive oral behaviors like sucking things, sucking pen fixtures, sucking other calves. So that was one of the maybe drawbacks to having this open bucket is they've drank milk so fast that they got to find something else to do, and they they go suck. 00;09;26;15 - 00;09;28;02 Brad On different things around the. 00;09;28;02 - 00;09;37;21 Brad Pen. So they did some metabolic and digestive indicators as well. So they looked at blood glucose. So the nipple fed calves. 00;09;37;29 - 00;09;39;15 Brad Had higher glucose. 00;09;39;15 - 00;09;40;03 Brad Spikes. 00;09;40;03 - 00;09;41;08 Brad Two hours after. 00;09;41;08 - 00;09;44;29 Brad Feeding. And this indicates better milk passage rate. 00;09;44;29 - 00;09;46;06 Brad And curd formation. 00;09;46;06 - 00;09;48;27 Brad So in the digestive system the. 00;09;48;27 - 00;09;50;02 Brad Curd formation. 00;09;50;04 - 00;09;50;28 Brad The milk. 00;09;50;28 - 00;09;52;05 Brad Forms occurred. 00;09;52;08 - 00;09;56;19 Brad Which helps in better digestion. So nipple fed calves may be a little. 00;09;56;19 - 00;09;58;18 Brad Bit better digestion. 00;09;58;20 - 00;10;02;20 Brad Fecal consistency. The open bucket calves had higher Fico. 00;10;02;20 - 00;10;03;10 Brad Scores. 00;10;03;10 - 00;10;04;03 Brad Indicating. 00;10;04;10 - 00;10;04;25 Brad More. 00;10;04;25 - 00;10;08;19 Brad Fluid feces, although not necessarily clinical. 00;10;08;19 - 00;10;10;24 Brad Diarrhea. So more milk scour. 00;10;10;24 - 00;10;16;25 Brad So they drank so fast that maybe went through them a little bit faster. So they have a little bit. 00;10;16;28 - 00;10;19;03 Brad Higher fecal scores, but. 00;10;19;03 - 00;10;20;12 Brad Nothing that looks. 00;10;20;12 - 00;10;22;00 Brad Any terrible. 00;10;22;02 - 00;10;22;21 Brad So really. 00;10;22;25 - 00;10;23;23 Brad Slower. 00;10;23;23 - 00;10;28;02 Brad Ingestion of milk kind of triggered this satiety. 00;10;28;02 - 00;10;28;24 Brad Or fullness. 00;10;28;24 - 00;10;36;03 Brad Feeling. And it improved the physical digestion of the liquid diet. Well, open buckets. 00;10;36;06 - 00;10;39;01 Brad Increased starter intake, rumination. 00;10;39;01 - 00;10;48;05 Brad Maybe there's some tradeoffs to having these open buckets. So the kind of open bucket cost I should say they have heightened anxiety. 00;10;48;07 - 00;10;50;15 Brad So they're looking around. 00;10;50;15 - 00;10;52;20 Brad Trying to find this. It's like they have this. 00;10;52;23 - 00;10;53;23 Brad They're starving. 00;10;53;23 - 00;10;54;26 Brad They've drank so fast. 00;10;54;26 - 00;10;56;15 Brad And now they think they're starving. 00;10;56;17 - 00;11;06;22 Brad They have unnatural ingestion speeds. So cows maybe aren't meant to drink milk so fast like that. More of this sucking reflex like you would. 00;11;06;22 - 00;11;07;17 Brad If they were. 00;11;07;20 - 00;11;08;18 Brad You know, sucking on their. 00;11;08;18 - 00;11;09;22 Brad Dam or a beef. 00;11;09;22 - 00;11;11;19 Brad Calf sucking on their mom. It's going to. 00;11;11;19 - 00;11;13;19 Brad Be much slower, much slower. 00;11;13;19 - 00;11;16;19 Brad So they, you know, consume it much faster. They have. 00;11;16;19 - 00;11;18;07 Brad Looser feces. 00;11;18;09 - 00;11;31;10 Brad And they become frustrated more often, which results in cross sucking. So that's kind of the interesting fact about all of this. I never really thought about it before, but cross sucking we see calves cross sucking. 00;11;31;10 - 00;11;32;28 Brad In our dairy. 00;11;33;01 - 00;11;36;20 Brad And maybe it's because they drink so fast that now. 00;11;36;20 - 00;11;38;03 Brad They're bored and they got to. 00;11;38;03 - 00;11;48;13 Brad Go suck on something else. Suck on the pen. Second, another calf that's in the pen. So I don't know, maybe, maybe there is something to this, to this natural. 00;11;48;13 - 00;11;49;29 Brad Behavior and having more. 00;11;50;01 - 00;11;50;16 Brad Nipple. 00;11;50;16 - 00;11;52;06 Brad Feeders for the calves versus. 00;11;52;06 - 00;11;58;10 Brad Trying to use an open bucket. Obviously the nipple bucket satisfies kind of biology. 00;11;58;12 - 00;12;00;17 Brad You know, that's their natural state for a. 00;12;00;17 - 00;12;01;23 Brad Calf to drink. 00;12;01;25 - 00;12;06;27 Brad More slowly. If they were going to do it on their their mother lowers anxiety. 00;12;06;27 - 00;12;10;05 Brad So you don't have all these, you know, feelings. 00;12;10;05 - 00;12;11;28 Brad That they're they're starving. 00;12;12;00 - 00;12;18;05 Brad And it really supports digestive health. So the nipple bucket satisfies biology. 00;12;18;12 - 00;12;19;00 Brad Lowered their. 00;12;19;00 - 00;12;20;21 Brad Anxiety and. 00;12;20;21 - 00;12;22;07 Brad Maybe better supported. 00;12;22;07 - 00;12;29;04 Brad Digestive health without sacrificing weight gain. So what is the kind of application. 00;12;29;04 - 00;12;32;10 Brad Here for for dairy managers. 00;12;32;13 - 00;12;39;29 Brad And what certainly can can we do? If you sort of summarize this, the pros open bucket. 00;12;39;29 - 00;12;41;12 Brad Faster chore times. 00;12;41;17 - 00;12;45;28 Brad You can feed calves much faster because they drink much faster. 00;12;45;28 - 00;12;48;03 Brad They have higher early starter intake. 00;12;48;03 - 00;12;49;14 Brad But you have this. 00;12;49;14 - 00;12;50;00 Brad Looser. 00;12;50;00 - 00;12;53;24 Brad Feces, increased anxiety and frustration. 00;12;53;24 - 00;12;54;28 Brad The pros for the nipple. 00;12;54;28 - 00;12;55;28 Brad Bucket, you know, kind of. 00;12;55;28 - 00;12;56;15 Brad Mirrors. 00;12;56;15 - 00;13;04;10 Brad This natural biology. It really helped cut some of these abnormal behaviors in half. And it seems to that you. 00;13;04;10 - 00;13;06;04 Brad Have calmer calves. 00;13;06;06 - 00;13;15;00 Brad You know, we all like calm calves and calves that are not rambunctious. So maybe the nipple bucket feeder does something to to calm the calves. 00;13;15;02 - 00;13;15;28 Brad However. 00;13;16;00 - 00;13;18;02 Brad It's going to take you longer to feed them. 00;13;18;04 - 00;13;20;05 Brad That's there's no doubt about that. 00;13;20;05 - 00;13;23;09 Brad And you maybe have a delayed spike in. 00;13;23;09 - 00;13;23;23 Brad Starter. 00;13;23;23 - 00;13;43;15 Brad Intake. So a few things to sort of think about. So what are the practical implications. What are what are we going to do. So how or what do we do. So you can transition to nipple buckets. So adopting this method may improve calf welfare and reduce harmful hen sucking behaviors. 00;13;43;17 - 00;13;45;24 Brad I think we're all for that. I'm all for trying. 00;13;45;24 - 00;13;51;00 Brad To prevent calves with sucking on each other. We always see things, happen like that. 00;13;51;00 - 00;13;57;01 Brad In in our dairy herd as well. Really reframes maybe some starter intake. 00;13;57;03 - 00;14;01;03 Brad So I don't really panic over low pre weaning. 00;14;01;03 - 00;14;01;16 Brad Starter. 00;14;01;16 - 00;14;08;15 Brad Intake. But the data really showed from this study that it did not impact average daily gain. You know. 00;14;08;15 - 00;14;09;23 Brad Calves were all gaining. 00;14;09;23 - 00;14;12;14 Brad The same. And probably the biggest thing. 00;14;12;14 - 00;14;13;15 Brad Is monitoring. 00;14;13;20 - 00;14;17;06 Brad The weaning transition. So keep an eye on calf behavior. 00;14;17;06 - 00;14;17;29 Brad And performance. 00;14;17;29 - 00;14;23;11 Brad Post weaning. You know, we just to make sure that the calves that had. 00;14;23;11 - 00;14;25;07 Brad Lower starter intake did not create a. 00;14;25;07 - 00;14;43;10 Brad Lag in solid feed transition. I think that's one of the big things is trying to transition into solid feed and and how you do that. Obviously it's important to look at those calves no matter what you're doing. But I thought this was an interesting study. You know, I use nipple buckets and we use some nipple. 00;14;43;10 - 00;14;45;11 Brad Feeders when we're feeding our. 00;14;45;11 - 00;14;46;06 Brad Calves and. 00;14;46;09 - 00;14;47;15 Brad Really never thought about. 00;14;47;15 - 00;14;55;13 Brad It. I'm I'm interested with this. The sucking reflex, though. I don't know if I see that all the time. It seems maybe the calves that are drinking. 00;14;55;13 - 00;14;56;13 Brad Faster. 00;14;56;15 - 00;15;08;11 Brad Seem to not feel full, but I think that's that's maybe what it all comes down to is if the calves are feeling full, they're not going to go suck on something else in the pan. 00;15;08;11 - 00;15;08;28 Brad Or another. 00;15;08;28 - 00;15;12;22 Brad Calf within the pan. And I'm all about that. We've we've had. 00;15;12;22 - 00;15;14;08 Brad Our fair share of. 00;15;14;10 - 00;15;24;24 Brad Issues with that and some milking cows that are still sucking on each other. So any way that I can help reduce that is, is a plus. So maybe I need to go back and look at my feeding. 00;15;24;24 - 00;15;27;02 Brad Program and, and make sure that we're. 00;15;27;02 - 00;15;28;28 Brad Feeding calves enough. 00;15;29;00 - 00;15;30;13 Brad So they're full. 00;15;30;16 - 00;15;31;15 Brad And providing. 00;15;31;20 - 00;15;32;12 Brad Starter at. 00;15;32;12 - 00;15;34;10 Brad All times. So if they're full they go. 00;15;34;10 - 00;15;37;23 Brad Interact with the starter as well as water free choice. 00;15;37;25 - 00;15;48;16 Brad So with that, I hope you learned a few things about nipple buckets and bucket feedings of calves. Kind of is an interesting study to see. What happened and I don't know. 00;15;48;16 - 00;15;50;10 Brad Maybe the jury's still out there. 00;15;50;13 - 00;15;51;23 Brad Whether you should use a bucket. 00;15;51;23 - 00;15;53;07 Brad Or a nipple feeder. 00;15;53;09 - 00;15;55;19 Brad You want to feed calves fast? 00;15;55;21 - 00;15;56;27 Brad The bucket sure is nice. 00;15;56;27 - 00;15;58;27 Brad And with that, I think we'll leave. 00;15;58;27 - 00;15;59;22 Brad It there for. 00;15;59;22 - 00;16;22;10 Brad Today. And do you have any questions, comments, or scathing rebuttals? Feel free to contact me at the newsroom. That's tag demo s r om at. Edu, find us on the web. University of Minnesota Livestock Extension or and Rock dairy. And with that happy feeding camps. But you.