At the calf barn today we decided it was time to try and train some of our young calves to drink off of a bucket. Many farms will feed their calves on a bottle and we will also do that, but once the calves are eating really well we will try to graduate them to eating on a bucket. This is really simple to teach and will save a lot of time during chores. All we need to do is fill a pail with milk and guide their mouth into the liquid with our hands or with a nipple attachment that would normally be on a bottle. Most of the time all it takes is for a few drops of milk to touch their tongue and then they drink the entire pail without a problem. Sometimes however, we will have the occasional calf who cant quite figure it out alone so we have to help them find the milk at the bottom of the bucket a few extra times until they get it.
The girl in the picture below was an absolute rockstar! First I showed her where the milk was with my hand, then I transitioned into a nipple attachment and she kept her nose in the bucket for the entire time. When the afternoon feeding came around she remembered that there was delicious milk in the bucket and did not need any assistance finding it. As soon as I placed the pail in her pen she immediately stuck her nose down in the warm milk and drank it all without any help.
Today we shipped 5,444 gallons of milk and had no new babies.
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