Teaching a calf to drink is hard work and requires patience!

It's much easier to teach calves in small groups in small pens.

It's much easier to teach calves to drink with warm milk than cold milk. Never collect milk for calves through a plate cooler. A milk warmer is a really good idea for newborns.

Hold the calf between your legs with your knees.

Push the tit into it's mouth and squeeze it's jaw open and shut on the tit so milk goes into its mouth.

It may take several goes before it gets the message.

Sometimes you need to give up and come back later in the day to try. This is often the case if they get a good feed from mum before they enter the calf shed.

For the first few days the calf will need helped drinking as they come off and loose the tit regularly.

Always observe them feeding until you are confident they can find the tit by themselves.

Feeding time is always the best time to pick up on early illness as not wanting to drink or not drinking vigorously is always a sign something isn't right.

A can of paint is really handy to mark any alf you aren't happy with