Keep equipment clean

This is one area where farmers often fall down. Dirty equipment harbours germs and diseases. Make sure and wash and rinse all equipment thoroughly after each feed. Using dirty equipment will only increase the risk of disease outbreaks. The pathogens that cause scour enter through the calf’s mouth.

Only buy calves from a trusted source

Don’t buy in problems. Only healthy calves should be purchased. No matter how cheap you think a calf may be don’t buy him if he has a dirty/wet hind quarter, dull or showing early signs of pneumonia. Bringing these type of animals onto the farm will prove very costly in the long run.

It is vital that calves have received adequate colostrum in the first few hours of life (guideline around 3 litres within the first six hours). Buying a calf from a farm where it has not received adequate colostrum is like buying a ticking time bomb. The Agri-Food and Bio Science Institute (AFBI) in Hillsborough recently produced data showing that the live weight gain recorded on calves with low ZST levels (an indication of the level of antibodies circulating in the blood) at 7 days old was 17% less in the period up to 3 months than calves with high ZST levels. These calves also required a greater number of antibiotic treatments and over their lifetime returned a margin of £17 (€19) per head less. In completing the trial AFBI purchased a total of 240 calves from farms around the country. The ZST tests showed that on average 15% of the 240 calves had inadequate immune status. On an individual farm basis the range was from zero to 57%. This highlights the importance of knowing where you are sourcing calves from.

Management of the calf after purchase

When the calves come onto the farm stress levels need to be kept to a minimum. Therefore don’t be tempted to dis-bud. Initially group the calves into batches of 4 to 5 as this will allow for closer observation. You need to watch out for calves that are not used to the feeding system you are using. Some calves may have been trained to drink out of a trough/bucket or my have been reared on the cow. Whatever system you are using to feed calves it will take 2 to 3 days for the entire group to get trained in on it. Ideally, if you are only buying 15 to 20 calves you should try and buy them as a group over the period of a week. This will make management a lot easier, especially if you intend grazing them over the summer. A small group of calves with a big spread in the age profile will only increase labour.

Buy early in the season

I always advise farmers to try and buy calves early in the spring. There are two reasons for this. Firstly the level of disease on the dairy farm at the start of the calving season tends to be at its lowest. Therefore you will stand a better chance of buying a healthier calf in Jan/Feb than in March/April. Secondly your Jan/Feb born calf will be at least 40 to 50kg heavier when housed in the autumn. If slaughtering as a young bull at 14 to 15 months the additional 50kg of liveweight achieved pre-housing will reduce the cost of the final finishing period by up to €100 per head.

How many times to feed

There are a number of theories on how many times per day calves should be offered milk. Research has shown no longterm difference in the performance of calves fed once per day and those fed twice per day. From a management point of view I would advise the novice calf rearer to feed twice per day for at least the first 14 to 21 days after purchase. Depending on labour availability you can then decide to move to once per day feeding. However even on once per day feeding you still need to monitor calves regularly during the day to ensure you pick up any health issues at and early stage.

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Week one of calf rearing tips