The most difficult period of calf rearing is the first 14 days. Diarrhoea problems and respiratory problems are the biggest causes of calf mortality. It is not always easy to find the cause, but we can start ruling things out. If calf rearing is difficult, it takes a lot of energy and worry. No dairy farmer wil let that slide easily. But how to make that improvement? Go back to basics and back to nature. The basic elements have to be right. Dry, clean and nice and fresh. Everything depends on a good dry matter ration and structured colostrum management.
So what things can we rule out?
A calf naturally drinks milk with its nose up. This is for good reason, as drinking from a natural position and sucking vigorously ensures a good oesophageal reflex. Thus, the milk flows past the rumen to the abomasum. By sucking vigorously, the calf produces a lot of saliva. This saliva has a positive influence on digestion and has a buffering effect so it does not acidify so quickly. In addition, saliva contains enzymes that ensure better breakdown of food components. This prevents bacterial fermentation from taking place in the gut. Saliva also has a resistance-boosting effect. All this together results in efficient digestion of milk and better growth.
This way of drinking is best done with a Wennemars® teat. This has an open connection to the milk in the bucket. The calf likes to suck on this forcefully. The design of the teat ensures that each calf has to make a sucking movement for each sip of milk. This gives control over the drinking speed.
A traditional valve teat is closed at the back with a ball, spout, valve or pipe. The teat works like a pump where the milk can only come out at the front. This allows the calf to get all its milk with a biting motion, resulting in it swallowing too much milk too quickly, with the risk of choking. Moreover, this causes the calf to produce too little saliva. This results in unhealthy and inefficient digestion.
Providing milk hygienically is a must.Germ growth in teats and teat buckets or bottles is still heavily underestimated.Working cleanly reduces the risk of harmful bacteria being carried.This was a major spearhead in the development of Wennemars® ECF calf drinking system.We must have drinking equipment that is easy to clean.In the Wennemars® ECF calf drinking system, the teats are hidden in the walls of the buckets.This is patented.We pull the ECF teat from the inside out into the cavity of the ECF1, ECF2 and ECF6 drinkers.This way, the inside of the bucket is smooth and flat. (And the teat is always in the right position.) No corners where milk residues accumulate. With the construction of the bottom, we have less residual milk. The drinking buckets are made of high-quality PP material and very tightly pressed together.
Dropping drinking equipment on the ground… Really a leak in the hygienic provision of milk to calves.You only have so much contamination from the manure to the calf. Think cossidosis or salmonella.With the innovative locking clip on the Wennemars® suspension hook, this is a thing of the past.More working pleasure, no buckets to pick up and hygiene taken to the next level.Made of stainless steel and clampable between different tube thicknesses with extended back plates.Bars spaced up to 11 cm apart.For wider bars, please contact us.
How much time do we spend cleaning teats from traditional teat buckets? Unscrewing everything, cleaning it and putting it back together again? We rinse the Wennemars® ECF teat right along with washing the bucket. It is an open teat with an open connection of the milk/water in the bucket. Should the ECF teat be dirty, it is easy to remove by turning the bucket upside down and pushing the teat down. Inserting goes from inside to outside in the cavity of the ECF drinker.
A calf drinking under the mother cow bends down and puts its nose up.This way, the calf drinks in the most natural drinking position and the oesophageal reflex works optimally.The guideline is a teat height of 65 cm from the ground.To ensure that we can achieve this independently of the fencing, we have equipped the Wennemars® ECF6 Drinker with an ECF6 adaptor.The adaptor allows us to adjust the height of the ECF6 Drinker.In addition, the adaptor has a lock, preventing the ECF6 Drinker from falling to the ground.The adaptor consists of a triangle and a mounting plate.
Door de adaptor is het ook mogelijk om de ECF6 Drinker te laten kantelen. Zo is het mogelijk om de ECF6 Drinker bij het hok te laten hangen, voor bijvoorbeeld grote bedrijven. Zo heeft elk hok zijn eigen ECF6 Drinker. De ECF6 adaptor heeft drie verschillende types:
De ECF6 adaptor heeft verschillende lengte achterplaten. Zo is ervoor elk hekwerk een passende achterplaat, waardoor de speen altijd op +/- 65 cm van de grond af kan hangen. Om de juiste achterplaat mee te sturen, zijn we de hoogte van het hekwerk nodig.
Wil je volledig je ECF6 Drinker samenstellen, volg dan onderstaande Tool. Door de stappen te volgen, kom je op de juiste ECF6 Drinker uit voor je hekwerk.
De ECF6 Drinker en de ECF6 adaptor zijn samen één set. Deze set bevat geen spenen en pluggen. Bestel deze eenvoudig apart.
