I have been rearing calves for close on 40 years. I have never lost interest and consider it amongst the most privileged of jobs on the farm. It is possible to purchase in-calf heifers for replacements but there’s something special about growing your own.

Cow family history can be traced back and traits recognised. Cows have different personalities and a farmer will know a cow from a distance from the way she moves and so on.

Dairy farming is a most interesting way of life constantly changing and requiring you to alter your ways as science dictates.

It is an absolute nightmare to get a bad scour in calves

Over the years I’ve seen many changes. I started out with individual pens with two buckets in front of the calves. I thought they were a great invention, but in hindsight they were very labour intensive.

The biggest learning curve came when disease hit. There was the year we had salmonella and a number of years back; we had an outbreak of rotavirus. It is an absolute nightmare to get a bad scour in calves. New calves are being born and you know that it is almost impossible to prevent the spread of it through them all. You are already tired with cows calving and baby calves to be fed. Scour is the last thing you need at this busy time.

We’ve but a handful of cows and heifers to calve and it has been plain sailing

So we’ve learned lessons. The most important being vaccination. It does cost, but it is well worth the money for peace of mind and thrifty calves. We’ve tried not vaccinating the heifers and a certain percentage of the cows but the management of colostrum is difficult. There is only one way to vaccinate and that’s across the whole herd.

We’ve but a handful of cows and heifers to calve and it has been plain sailing. Calves are healthy and thriving. We’ve had the odd case of what we call nutritional scour which has been treated immediately; and I mean immediately! The minute a calf stands back and does not drink or drinks very little, we give an electrolyte half way between the next feed. They are generally back on track by that next feed. Getting in before they are actually sick is our plan.

My son Philip, his fiancée Aileen, and I are the calf-rearing team. We are lucky to have a dedicated team. Before the season starts we have a family calf-rearing meeting and decide everything. That way everyone knows the drill.

Communication

I believe the most important element of calf rearing – and lots of other things – is accurate communication. All three of us have other jobs so we need to know instantly what changes are there. All calves born are entered in the shared WhatsApp group and a band with a number put around the necks. We manage a white board well. All calf pens are detailed with the number of litres of transition milk or replacer required. Calves are housed in batches of nine with a dedicated ten teat feeder.

It does add a bit of time to management. I think it’s worth it

All pens have shelter and a lamp. The heifer calves wear coats. This is my thing. It does add a bit of time to management. I think it’s worth it. There are divided reports on the benefits.

The careful management of colostrum is critical for new born calves. The golden rule 1-2-3 is our bible: three litres of first colostrum within two hours and the cow milked soon after calving. As far as possible we only use colostrum collected in the last 24 hours. We keep a good few doses in the freezer. I’m already collecting for next spring.

One of the things we’ve learned is that accurate measurement pays off.

All our calves are being tested this year as they are tagged. I’m really looking forward to the results

One of the most exciting developments in calf rearing has been genomic testing. All our calves are being tested this year as they are tagged. I’m really looking forward to the results. This will give a much more accurate economic breeding index (EBI) figure for our replacement heifers and breeding bulls and eliminate mistakes made by us in recording dams and sires. The benefits of science in the business are enormous and very enjoyable.