Premier Equipment Digital 2017

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The success of bucket teat
units has been remarkable!
We experimented with them on our
own sheep flock in 1986 and then offered
the units to the US sheep industry a year
later. Over 20,000 US sheep and goat
producers are now using them.
What is the right height
for a bucket teat?
Only as high as a normal mother’s own
teat (which varies!).
Why so low? When a young lamb or
kid stretches out its neck to nurse ( see
above), the esophagus elongates and
forms a groove to carry milk into the 4th
stomach (abomasum).
If the neck is not stretched, the milk
falls into the first stomach instead of the
4th. But the first stomach is intended
for grass or hay. It doesn’t digest milk
well. A first stomach with too much milk
enlarges to form a “potbelly”—and the
lamb/kid can’t thrive.
Why we prefer square buckets…
• Hang flat against side of pen so they’re more stable.
• Bucket teat units fit better against flat sides of square buckets.
• Can be sealed with an EzeLid!
98 Correct bucket height is teat high, or about 9"-12" above the ground.
Milk temperature—
warm vs cold?
Mother’s milk is warm, but it is
produced constantly in only small
amounts—so lambs can’t take too much at
one time.
Orphan buckets produce milk in large
amounts. If the milk is warm, healthy
orphans consume too much at a time.
Warm milk spoils rapidly. So we use
warm milk only for newborns. Then we
switch to cold milk.
Cold milk forces
lambs/kids to
self-regulate
their intake (they
become chilled and
stop drinking).
To keep milk cold
we freeze water in 2
qt and 1 gal plastic
bottles or jugs and
drop them in the
buckets (see left).
Frozen
water
bottle