Industry experts have warned of the potential shortages in the supply of antimicrobial treatments used to tackle watery mouth in newborn lambs. Now is a good time to consider other options to help prevent instances of watery mouth occurring this lambing season.
We all know the importance of quality colostrum, but it is easy to overlook the importance of dry cows and dry cow management when it comes to maximising colostrum quality.
The end of 2021 has arrived with colder weather, darker nights, and a storm brewing in the calf milk raw material market.
With the dairy industry increasing the use of sexed semen, and research indicating there may be environmental benefits to crossbred calves, rearing dairy-bred beef calves can be an attractive option.
Avoid the risks of exceeding nutrient tolerance. The graph shows at what level calves reach their nutrient tolerance for lactose. The red line represents a typical high plane of nutrition using a typical calf milk replacer where, especially early in life, there is a risk of exceeding lactose tolerance, leading to nutritional diarrhoea.
The beef on dairy market is a rapidly increasing sector of the dairy industry. Sometimes due to on farm factors, the best option is to sell calves under 42 days old and it is often a respectable third milk cheque for the dairy farmer, other options are to sell batches of weaned calves or carry on through the system and sell as stores or finished cattle. The process to enter each market requires careful and forward planning and will be dependent on many factors.
Unfortunately, we cannot shy away from increasing feed costs but we can pay less attention to daily feed costs or cost per ton and more attention on costs per kg daily live weight gain.
Nutrients are valuable, whether this is through milk replacer, starter feed, minerals or forage, they all come at a cost!
We are all aware of the detrimental effects that heat stress can have on our cows, and are often quick to run to the cow sheds and collecting yards to put measures in place to mitigate this.
Colostrum management is the key aspect to any successful calf rearing system. We know the importance of feeding our calves colostrum quickly (within 2 hours of birth), quality (>50mg/l) and quantity (10% of birthweight) but do we know the detrimental effect of the contamination within colostrum if we were to leave it standing after harvesting.
Sexed male beef semen, that can achieve conception rates which match those of conventional, could be a ‘game-changer’ for dairy farmers looking to make the most of everything produced on-farm.
