I want to know about advantages and disadvantages feeding dairy calf using bottle & bucket?

Question

are they have any different effect for the calf?

Answer 1

Bottle feeding is best.  Helps prevent the calves from scouring.  Also keeps the calves calmer and happier.  Baby animals, like calves, foals, lambs, kids (goats), piglets, ect all have a deep desire to nurse.

When farmers take away the chance for the animal to nurse, and only drink out of a bucket, they have a lot more problems with abnormal behaviors.  Calves (and other baby animals) will begin to suck on anything they can, just to fill the desire to nurse (even if all their calloric needs are being met).  Calves that are not allowed to nurse will have a lot more problems with impactions, as they suck all the fur/hair off other animals.  Piglets will "nurse" on the tails of other piglets, and cause huge sores, which in turn cause canibalism.

When I purchased my first horse, she was pastured with a bucket raised calf.  The calf had "nursed" all the hair off her tail, as the mare allowed the calf to suck on her tail.  Bucket raised calves may also suck the paint off barn walls.  If you have an older barn, you may loose calves to lead paint poisoning.

Bucket feeding fills the calloric needs of the calf.  Bottle feeding fills the mental needs, and the calloric needs of the calf.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Answer 2

when you bottle feed the calf you have to make sure that it is fed quite a few times a day. it should be kept on a schedule. breakfast lunch and dinner, your question is kind of unclear. hopes this helps.

Answer 3

advantage= no cow to feed. calf's are cheap                   disadvantage=you are the mother and you must feed several times a day and night

Answer 4

Using a bottle and bucket allows the calf to become more tame, compared to allowing the mother to raise the calf, in which the calf tends to be more wild and less approachable.

Answer 5

On our farm we have fed calves with buckets and a neighboring farm used bottles...  Several do's and don'ts here...  

Do: Feed your calf 2 times per day.  If this is a Jersey calf you may need to feed a smaller amount to start, all other breeds start with 2 quarts of milk at each feeding.  Gradually increase this to 3 quarts per feeding over 2-3 weeks.  At two weeks of age begin offering calf starter.  After feeding the milk take a small amount of pellets and place in the calf's mouth as this will help it to get started eating solid food.  If you have some alfalfa shake the leaves out and feed this as well.  At the end of the first month the calf should begin consuming of alfalfa leaves and calf starter (usually has a molasses mixed in to sweeten).  Provide small amounts of fresh water every day.  You do want to vaccinate your calf following a protocol set up by a local large animal vet or from advice of a nearby dairy.

Do Not...  feed stemmy alflalfa as the rumen is not fully developed to digest this type of plant material.  Do not feed more than twice a day as this is not necessary and will tend to cause scours by overfeeding.  

The use of the bucket or bottle is of no difference.  My home farm used buckets to feed milk and a neighboring farm used bottles.  We both got along fine, calves developed equally and it boiled down to the genetics as to which calf milked better when they were mature animals.  The training for a bucket may take several days, heifers are quicker to learn than the bull calves.  We sometimes skipped a feeding as the calf needed to realize it was hungry enough to suck when the finger was put into its mouth and it need to hold its head down into the bucket.  Same with bottle calves, first couple days are a little slow till they learn that this is their meal ticket.  If purchasing new bottles, take a sharp blade and very carefully open up the slits on the nipple.  Not too much, yet by cutting the slit a bit it will help the milk to flow a little faster when the calf is sucking on the bottle.

Watch for scours at every feeding, learn to recognize the calf if ears are droopy or slow appetite may be symptoms of other causes, ie. respiratory infection or scours.   Wean the calf at 6-8 weeks of age as long as it consuming 1-2 pounds of grain every day and drinking water on regular basis.

Several of Bohemian's ideas may be true yet not all.  Bucket feeding will not cause scouring.  Overfeeding, dirty environment (manure on fences or other places that a calf can suck following eating), wet environment, among others.  Calves must stay dry, have fresh air and receive selenium and other injectables on advisory status of your vet.  Calves will suck on anything following a feeding, it does not matter if it is a bucket or a bottle.  Calves DO NOT suffer from nipple remorse if fed from a bucket, all the calf cares about is being fed its feeding of milk.  Keep your calf in a somewhat confined area that provides shade and do not keep it confined in an old chicken house or similar structure as ventilation is poor and the calf will catch a respiratory infection.  Calves while on milk are best kept separate from each other as they will suck on anything following a feeding.  If a calf has a bad case of scours in a certain area, do not put a new calf back into this area until it can be thoroughly power washed and/or placed in the sun for a period of time.  The healthiest calves we raised were in fiberglass calf hutches that provided a 6 foot run in the front of the structure.

Answer 6

Well unlike monogastric animals (single Stomach), ruminents have four main different stomachs. At a early stage during milk feeding the rumen is not functional, it is the omasum that carries out most of the digestion. Its is scientifically proven that suckling ( bottle feeding) incourages the assophical (excuse my spelling) grove to open which bypasses the rumen to the omasum, allowing digestion to occur, thus stopping scours occuring when it enters the rumen.

Bottle feeding may take time though it is easier to rather than spending time bucket training, and the cleaning up, though when they are trained you can leave them 2 it!

You should do what we do and employ a robot!