Dairy Spares has launched a unique new colostrum-feeding kit called the Trusti Tuber. Its design ensures tubing is safer, easier and more comfortable for the calf. It allows feeding to be done more quickly and with less stress for both calf and farmer.
Manufactured by Antahi in New Zealand, the Trusti Tuber starter kit consists of a mouthpiece which sits comfortably against the calf’s muzzle, through which a soft flexible tube is passed. Using markers of calf size and a stopper, the length of the tube can be altered to ensure correct placement and positioning of the tip end. The mouthpiece and tube are easily held in the calf’s mouth using one hand. With the other hand, the 4 litre ergonomically-designed milk bottle can be raised to allow the colostrum, or electrolytes, to flow down the tube and safely into the calf’s stomach.
Further design features include a clip on the side of the bottle to attach the mouthpiece and keep it off the floor, and the transparency of the tube allows better cleaning.
The Trusti Tuber was developed in New Zealand by vet Ursula Haywood who was finding her farm clients were reluctant to tube-feed calves, due to the associated stress and risk of tube misplacement. In trials the Trusti Tuber has been shown to almost halve the time it takes to tube calves, and it reduced behavioural signs of stress by 88%.
