In the past few weeks, Animal Health Ireland has held CalfCare open days on farms around the country, the last of which will take place later this week.

The open days were delivered by AHI, Teagasc and Volac, with support from Aurivo, Dairygold, Glanbia and Lakeland. The open days were simple and precise, focusing on four key areas to rear healthy calves.

Colostrum

A key point of focus at all walks is colostrum and colostrum management. The one two three rule was re-enforced at each walk: (1) feed the first milk of the cow; (2) feed the calf within two hours; and (3) feed three litres.

The importance of feeding colostrum quickly after birth was emphasised to ensure that the calf gets enough antibodies as the calf’s ability to absorb antibodies declines quickly after birth. By 24 hours old, the calf is unable to absorb antibodies from colostrum.

The reason for feeding such a high volume of colostrum to dairy calves is to ensure that the calf gets enough antibodies.

The concentration of antibodies in dairy cows’ milk is lower than in suckler cows’ milk due to a dilution effect.

On colostrum storage, farmers were urged to only use colostrum from cows on their own farm because they have specific antibodies to the pathogens that are present on the farm. When choosing what colostrum to store, farmers were advised to only store colostrum from cows which are known not to have Johne’s disease.

For suckler farmers who need to have a store of colostrum on the farm, it was advised to take the first milk from cows that do not have Johne’s disease after the calf is fed and store it. When thawing colostrum, do so slowly in warm water and do not microwave it as this breaks down the proteins contained in it.

Johne’s Disease

To avoid the spread of Johne’s disease, and to be able to control it on the farm, all efforts should be made to reduce the risk of spreading the disease. Milk fed to calves should only be from its mother or a known cow that is not suspected of having Johne’s.

Keep records of what milk is fed to what calves for future use. After calving, a dairy calf should be removed quickly from the cow to a clean bedded pen. Avoiding the calf coming in contact with faeces is paramount. For sucklers, ensure that the cows’ teats are clean before allowing the calf to suck.

Calf scour

Scour is one of the largest causes of death in calves. The scouring calf can lose up to 10% of its body weight as scour in a day. The average healthy calf needs four to five litres of fluids per day; a sick or scouring calf could need up to eight or nine litres.

To keep the calf hydrated, two litres of electrolyte solution should be fed midway between each feed.

Milk should continue to be fed to calves as usual as their nutrient requirement is even higher when they are sick. The use of antibiotics for scouring calves should only be given where advised by vets as most scours are caused by viral infections or parasites.

Nutrition

The messages on nutrition were clear also. The most important thing in calf rearing is consistency. Milk powder needs to be mixed at a consistent concentration, and fed at a consistent temperature. It should also be fed at the same time every day.

While a once-a-day system can reduce labour significantly on farms, the calf should not be moved on to this until it is at least three weeks of age. The minimum feed needs to be three litres and the calf requires 13-15% solids per day. While milk replacers vary in price, do not solely focus on this when selecting the right type of milk replacer for your calves. The best-quality milk replacers are those that contain whey and skim proteins. Some cheaper types can often contain vegetable proteins. The advice is to read the label carefully.

Weight targets

Weaning targets are important to any system. Two of the key aspects of successful weaning are weaning weight and concentrate intake. The ideal weaning weight is 90-96kg. However, concentrate intake is equally as important.

Once milk is removed from the diet, the calf will rely on concentrates as the main source of energy. At weaning, calves need to be consuming about 1kg of concentrates per day.

To do this, calves need access to ad-lib fresh water and straw as a roughage source to develop the rumen and encourage concentrate intake.

  • Colostrum is key to building the calf’s immune system.
  • ·The calf should receive three litres within two hours of birth.
  • Only feed milk from a known cow that is not suspected of having Johne’s disease.
  • Feed two litres of electrolyte between feeds if the calf has scour.
  • Avoid using antibiotics unless the vet suggests it.
  • When buying milk replacer, focus on quality.
  • Wean based on concentrate intake and weight.