Warburg, AB | kipps - 1/11/2022 13:25
I used a system like this when I was mob feeding calves with bottles. Each calf occupied a space about a foot wide, and had access to two bottles. Those two bottles were also almost exactly a foot wide, so it worked out well. The angled platform was plywood, and the blue plastic with the holes was cut out of plastic 55-gallon barrels. I did use dividers between each calf to keep them from "bottle-hopping."
I assume you're feeding calves in individual cages though, so this concept probably won't help you much. If you're handy with a welder, I'm sure you can come up with something. Buy or build a rod bender, and form the basic shape of a bottle holder out of 1/4" steel rod. You'll still probably spend 20-30 minutes on each holder, once you count in the time it takes to come up with a prototype.
Even the commercially available bottle holders aren't perfect. They frequently have to be tied onto the fence or panel to keep the calf from bucking them off. This makes it harder to set and pull the bottles.
Your calf pens were 12” wide? |