With many farmers now calving, attendees at the Dairy Women’s Network Calf Rearing Expo should be well placed to ensure they have a good calf rearing season.
SealesWinslow nutrition and quality manager Natalie Hughes was one of the presenters at the expo and spoke about successful calf rearing, which she says starts before the calf is born.
“It all starts before day one of the calf’s life. Planning and preparation before calving sets us up for a successful season. Knowing the “what and how” of our own calf system with the latest tips and tricks, takes some of the weight off when calves hit the ground,” Hughes says.
Hughes feels that it’s all about what farmers do today and the impact they have on what’s coming into the herd later on.
“Prior preparation prevents piss-poor performance,” she says.
“If you don’t plan, you plan to fail. No matter what you do, you need some targets. They help draw the team together because they know exactly what they’re working on.”
Calf rearing
Not every farm has a purpose-built calf shed and Hughes began by looking at ways that farmers can effectively set up their calf shed. She believes that a purpose-built calf shed should be twice as deep as each bay’s width, so that the calves can hide in the back from any inclement weather.
“The standard space requirement is 1.5-2.5m2 for each calf. Jersey calves will need a little less than 2.5m2. But if you have big Holstein genetics in your herd, then you’ll need more than 2.5m2 to allow them to run, play and interact,” she says.
“We always run out of space at home and I assume other people have the same issue. But we still have to ensure that each calf has access to the available feed.”
Hughes reminded the attendees that they needed solid, easily cleaned partitions between each pen to provide separation between the groups and prevent the transfer of disease.
“There is a gold standard to what we want to achieve, and then there’s stuff that’s practical. What is practical is not always going to be science-backed, but realistically we’ve got to make what works for us in our systems,” she says.
She illustrated the point with an image of a calf shed where the farmers had attached old real estate signs on the fences between the pens to provide 1.2-metre high, solid partitions for the time that the calves were in the shed.
Hughes also emphasised the need to break any winds and draughts from entering the shed. But she also reminded the attendees of the importance of having adequate ventilation to prevent ammonia build up.
She showed an image of where a farmer had taken the practical approach and had placed a row of wrapped bales along the side that caught the prevailing wind as a practical and cheap solution to break the wind, but still provide adequate ventilation.
To assess the quantity of ventilation Hughes recommends farmers get down to calf height.
“You should be able to light a match and not have it blow out. Before it does burn out you should be able to tell where any draughts are coming from. Don’t use this method if straw is used as a bedding though,” she says.
It’s important to ensure that calves have enough entertainment and behavioural stimulation. Items such as road cones, Swiss balls and pantyhose with a tennis ball inside hung from the roof are all things that can be used and work well.
These entertainments give calves something to do, particularly when they’re transitioning between feed options such as twice-a-day feeding to once a day. These options are cheaper than a commercial calf brush. However, she has seen a calf shed where the head of a yard broom has been taped to a wall as a much cheaper DIY solution.
Hughes told the crowd that studies had shown that a calf shed utilising an all-in/all-out system was better for calves compared to continually moving them to the next pen in a “conveyer belt style system” until they left the shed.
“Calves are born without any kind of immune system. The study showed that there is a 9% higher growth rate in an all-in/all-out system, with no extra feed or management. If you use the conveyor belt system, the later calves are going into pens that may have already had a number of mobs through them and potentially, a large number of pathogens,” she said.
Bedding
Calves need to be kept warm so they use less energy to keep warm and more energy to grow.
AgResearch Ltd undertook a study to determine calf body temperature on the various typically used calf bedding options.
Wood chips containing chipped rubber, (similar to what is typically used for horse arena floors), proved to be the warmest bedding. However, Hughes said that this is why science is sometimes not practical. The chip containing rubber can’t be composted and therefore created a disposal problem. The researchers found that the wood-based bedding products were the next best option.
“The optimal temperature for a calf is between 15 and 25degC. On a practical level, very few farmers will be calving in 15degC temperatures. But it demonstrates the importance of ensuring that all attempts must be made to keep the calves as warm as possible so they can utilise as much feed as possible into growth,” she says.
Navel
When the calf is in-utero or inside the cow, the umbilical cord is the passageway for the calf’s nutrients. When the calf is born, the navel acts as a highway to the joints, lungs, kidneys and other organs. Keeping the navel clean and dry is important to reduce the risk of infection.
“Any infections travel up the navel and the calf’s ability to fight them off is very low. You want the navel to be dry within 24 hours. You must ensure that it is clean of organic matter before it’s sprayed or dipped (in a cup),” she says.
“The best gold standard scientific practice is to use a different cup for each calf to eliminate cross contamination. This is where there is a difference between ‘gold standard’ and what is actually practical on the farm. Complete coverage is the key whether you’re spraying or dipping.”
This article first appeared in the August 2022 issue of Dairy Farmer.
