The last time we met 541 she was coming up to four weeks old and in the calf shed on the milking block, bedded high with straw.

At this point, if you are wondering what this whole 541 thing is about, let’s backtrack. 541 is a replacement dairy heifer born two months ago in Jamie Kealy’s herd in Co Carlow.

Irish Country Living is going to be following her development between now and the Ploughing, where she is going to be raffled off in aid of Rathoe National School.

The purpose of these monthly updates is not only to follow 541’s growth, but also to offer a factual account of a dairy heifer calf’s life on an Irish farm at a time when much misinformation is being circulated.

Feeding

At four weeks, 541 moved from the milking block, where she spent the first month of her life, to the home block.

The calves are eating around a kilo of meal at this stage and drinking 650g of milk powder through the teat feeder

For the first month of her life she received whole milk but here on the home block she is reared on milk replacer until she is weaned at 100kg. 541’s diet now consists of Shine Once-a-day milk replacer and ad-lib meal.

“The calves are eating around a kilo of meal at this stage and drinking 650g of milk powder through the teat feeder. Here on the home block we have a portable milk feeder for mixing the powder,” says Jamie.

Weight

As on the milking block, the home block has a calf shed. It is much the same – calves are kept in similar pens, except it is a little more open and airy.

The main risk period for disease is over and we’ve treated the calves for IBR

For the first four weeks of 541’s life, the emphasis was on disease prevention, but now the focus is on getting the calf to thrive and hit its weight targets.

“The main risk period for disease is over and we’ve treated the calves for IBR (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis). The disease risk is minimal once we have vaccinated them for IBR.

“It’s important that they are weighed during this period (four to eight weeks). We weighed the calves last week, 541 was 78kg. The calves are 78kg-80kg on average.”

Out to grass

Due to last week’s spell of good weather, Jamie put the calves out to grass in a small sheltered paddock. They are skittish when let out in spring sunshine, eager to explore their new surroundings.

“The weather conditions last week were ideal, the forecast was for dry weather for a few days, so the calves got a chance to settle in outside.

“It’s purely because the weather is so good that they went out. Normally we wouldn’t get them out as early as this, but just that the weather was in favour.”

At this stage, 541 is approximately two to three weeks away from weaning. Her weaning weight is 95kg-100kg. Once she reaches 90kg-95kg the weaning process will start, the amount of milk replacer she receives will be slowly reduced.

When 541 is fully weaned off milk she will be totally dependent on grass and a kilogram of nuts per day.

Read more

The diary of calf 541: weeks one to four