The calf rearing period includes feeding (colostrum, milk/milk replacer, concentrates, fibre, and water), housing, general husbandry, and health management of calves from the moment they are born to post-weaning.
The calf rearing period includes feeding (colostrum, milk/milk replacer, concentrates, fibre, and water), housing, general husbandry, and health management of calves from the moment they are born to post-weaning.
By Kem Ormond
Setting your cows up for a long, productive life starts from the day they are born. Making sure they are well fed and cared for begins from day one.
The calf-rearing period covers the time from birth to 12 weeks of age. It includes feeding (colostrum, milk/milk replacer, concentrates, fibre, and water), housing, general husbandry, and health management of calves from the moment they are born up to four weeks post-weaning.
While some of you will be seasoned calf rearers, if you are new to calf rearing, then you really need to do your homework before setting out on this venture. Rearing calves requires the right person. They need to have the right skills, attention to detail and most importantly, they need to have empathy with the calves.
If you have staff that will be looking after your calves, you need to spend time with them making a plan of action that will work for everyone and that everyone knows the role they will be responsible for.
Before you add the new season’s litter to the shed, it needs to be sprayed out with a suitable bactericide/virucide. The litter needs to be good quality and spread to a depth of at least 10cm. Make sure this is replaced regularly if it gets wet or soiled.
Calves do not like the wind so make sure the open side of the calf shed is not exposed to the prevailing winds.
The shed will need good ventilation, plenty of area for calves to play – suggested 1.2 square metres per calf with a maximum of 20 per pen.
Calves should be housed for at least the first 3-4 weeks, and once they go out into the paddock have access to shelter.
Avoid any sharp edges, nails etc. and calves must always have access to fresh drinking water.
A weekly spray with a virucide disinfectant and a separate space for any sick calves will minimise the spread of disease and remember you are going to need an area for storing feed and a clean dry area for mixing the milk.
Calf collection from paddock to pen.
If you are able, collect your calves twice a day. Newborn calves can easily be injured so care must be taken when placing them in the trailer.
Recording information is important and they need to be ID tagged, then the aim is to get the calves to a dry, warm environment as soon as possible. Ear tags allow us to identify and track calves.
You need to make sure when transporting your calves that there is plenty of room in the trailer for them to sit down. The calf trailer needs to be dry and warm, so calves are protected from the wind and rain.
I can not stress enough how important hygiene is when it comes to newborn calves.
First off, you need to keep those hands washed! You need to make sure you are liberal with the disinfectant and keep the pens clean so as not to get a buildup of harmful bugs.
Foot baths are useful to clean boots before coming into the shed as people can be a major source of contamination for a calf rearing shed. Therefore, people who aren’t involved in calf rearing should not come into the shed during the season.
Calves are born with a sterile gut, which gets colonised as calves pick up bacteria from the environment. Some of these bacteria are highly beneficial for improved digestion of colostrum and milk, but some are harmful bacteria which can cause scours.
Scouring is the calf rearer’s biggest nightmare. Young calves that have scours need to be fed electrolytes immediately to avoid dehydration. Older calves can also be susceptible to scours as well. The main challenge is identifying the cause and deciding on the action to be taken. Preventionis better than the cure in terms of both economics and staff morale.
You also need to make sure you have a vaccination programme in place for your calves. Keeping track of calf weights is important as it provides an indication of how successful your calf-rearing plan is and if goals are being achieved.
Feeding
If you have done all your preparation before claves start arriving in the shed, you will be off to a good start. Once those calves arrive in the shed, they will be looking for food.
Young calves at a feeder on a farm near Te Awamutu.
Newborn calves must receive 12% of their body weight in fresh warm colostrum within 12 hours of birth. Colostrum is the first milk secreted by the mammary gland of the cow for the first 24 hours after birth. It is high in protein, energy, vitamins, minerals and growth factors.
On entry to the shed, the calves should be fed colostrum. Initially, calves should be fed twice a day. This gives you a chance twice a day to check your calves.
Giving your newborn calves the correct amount of high-quality colostrum will help ensure less scours and disease, reduced death rates, better growth rates, improved lifetime productivity and fertility.
When ready to move onto a calf feeder, you will need to train the calves to use the feeder, this can take time and patience as some are slower than others. You need to also make sure there is room for all the calves, and they are all getting a feed.
Calves are fussy eaters especially when they are young, so it is especially important that everything you feed them is clean and appealing. This includes milk, calf pellets, meal hay and grass.
Good quality feed will make all the difference to your calves. If you are new to calf rearing, contact a well-known nutrition company, spend the time to learn about quality products that will improve the health of your animals, prevent deficiencies, and improve productivity.
Discuss animal welfare concerns with your vet
Animal welfare is important and making sure timing and the appropriate methods for such procedures such as dehorning, and castration are observed. Any concerns on these matters, consult your local vet. Always remember good calf welfare underpins all successful calf-rearing enterprises. Disbudding and dehorning are painful, so pain relief is essential. As a minimum, local anaesthetic is required, but you may decide to provide more comprehensive pain relief. Options can be discussed with your vet.
Early disbudding is better for both the calf and the operator. It is best to remove horn buds before six weeks of age. At this age, the horns are still small and have not yet attached to the skull.
It is recommended that calves are at least a week old before disbudding. Calves at this age are usually robust, have passed the greatest risk period for scours, and the horn bud is easily felt.
And a final thought
If you plan to rear calves, have done your homework, shed, and feeding regime is all organised, remember this can be a really satisfying venture. Hard work for sure, but a great start for a young couple who want to get into future dairying or as extra income for an existing dairy farmer.
While this is a basic guide to rearing calves, there are plenty of mentors out there that are willing to share their experience and knowledge. Plus, your local vet will be able to provide you with invaluable information about the health of your calves.
