salt and baking soda??????

[bulldog]

A dairy farmer that get a few calves from said the I should put a teaspoon of table salt and a teaspoon of baking soda in each bottle that I feed. He said that it keeps their energy level up, and that he has done this for 30+ years. Has any of you heard of doing this. I wanted to check before I started.

Thanks,

Bulldog

:?: :?: :?:

 

[warpaint]

Never heard that one. But there are alot of old timers that have home remedies. ;-)

 

[RebelCritter]

Could be to help control bloat from bottle feeding, keep the rumen in balance. Baking soda is good for buffering the rumen to keep the acidity down.

 

[moocow]

Don't know about cattle, but I use this old school mixture for my sinuses. 1/8 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. baking soda, mixed in one cup warm water.

 

[milkmaid]

I've never used it except on sick bottle calves as a means of getting their systems back to normal. Can't see the need to do it on a twice-daily basis, but I doubt it would hurt either.

 

[samm]

we put bakin soda out for our goats ..
never thought about it for the cows..
when we have a bottle calf, i usually add an egg and some yogurt to the bottle for the first little while, havent had no troubles....
samm

 

[shorty]

I'm not sure but I think salt and baking soda works as a homemade electrolyte , I remember my father doing something like that years ago but I'm not sure.

 

[dun]

Could be to help control bloat from bottle feeding, keep the rumen in balance. Baking soda is good for buffering the rumen to keep the acidity down.

When bottle feeding calves the milk doesn;t go into the rumen so putting the stuff in the milk wouldn;t have any affect on the rumen.

 

[bulldog]

Does it make since about keeping their energy level up??

 

[TheBullLady]

Sounds rather odd to me. I would think if you're buying a good quality milk replacer, everything your calf needs would be in the replacer. Getting him on solid food as soon as possible is a good idea also.

 

[bulldog]

Thats what I thought too. He is on good milk replacer twice a day, and is eating about a pound of calf starter per day, and also eating a little hay. I noticed today that his stool is a little runny, I wonder if this is due to the change in his diet (eating hay, and more starter), and should I go to only one bottle per day on this calf since he is eating more of the other?? Please let me know your thoughts on this.

Thanks,

Bulldog

 

[Farmhand]

We keep our Holstein bucket calves on milk replacer 2x a day for 6 weeks then go to 1x a day for 2 weeks no matter how much of anything else they are eating. Calves started going down hill when we tried decreasing anything sooner. From our experience, we have needed to keep dairy breeds on replacer longer and heavier than beef breeds.

 

[milkmaid]

Does it make since about keeping their energy level up??

I would think, if the calf is healthy, there would be no need to "keep their energy up". Healthy calves leap to their feet when you come to feed, bawl for their milk and grain, run and play when given space (or not)... how much more energy does the calf need??? :lol:

IMO - if the calf is healthy, adding anything is a waste of time.