On a farm visit here today a client informed me that an automatic calf feeder that he purchased for 1000 Euro incl VAT was an excellent management tool. However, he has gone back to bucket feeding calves, due to calves getting scours by using the automatic feeder. In my opinion, this problem is due to the quality and quantity of colostrum in the first 6 hours post calving that is fed to calves.
Dr Dan