Assessing costs/returns of auto calf feeders

摘要

IN RECENT years, calf rearers have been provided with an alternative system to manually milk-feeding their calves: computer-controlled or automatic calf feeding (ACF) machines. In a previous article (The Australian Dairyfarmer, May-June 2006, p78), we presented pros and cons of the technology. This article documents their costs and returns, while a third article will discuss management of the machines and draw some conclusions on their role in calf-rearing systems.