The Wynnstay Calf and Youngstock section of the AgriHub is written by specialist in the field. Our lambing news and advice is created to prepare you for the lambing season, making sure that not only is you lambing shed ready but also both lamb and ewe health is managed.
Our team of calf specialists are highly experienced in the field of calf rearing, their blog posts offer calf rearing advice and news for both dairy and beef farmers. Our calf news section looks at calf housing, feeding and health. It also offer advice on how to improve profits and margins on farm.
Minerals are crucial part of any animals diet, whether they are macro minerals which are required in larger amounts, or trace minerals which are required in smaller amounts. Both these types of minerals are equally important and all add up to maintain health and performance. All minerals are available in natural feeds, however in order to achieve the optimum rate of minerals per day, a lot of this natural feed would need to be consumed.
Research trials have shown that feeding higher volumes of milk can lead to many benefits for calf, heifer and cow performance as well as the farmer. However, as we encourage higher litres there is often some reluctancy due to the following myths.
Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) or pneumonia causes inflammation of the lung tissue and airways. Often, its damage is irreversible and you often cannot prevent pneumonia from having an effect later in life. Even mild cases of pneumonia can have an impact on daily live weight gain (DLWG) and feed conversion efficiency (FCE), increasing the cost of production.
It is important to monitor performance of heifers in order to meet goals to get the heifer developed and grown well to optimise lifetime performance. Calving at 24 months has been shown to be the optimum for economic and lifetime performance but it is important that heifers meet key targets at critical stages in the rearing programme.
Finishing time contributes to profitability and sustainability of the UK beef market. As an industry we should be utilising cattle efficiencies and look to get them finished quicker as they become poorer at feed conversion.
Rearing dairy heifers from birth to first calving can be costly, but they are the future of the herd and it is important to get right. The aim is to inseminate heifers at 14- 15 months old to be calving down at 24 months.
In cattle, puberty is dependent on weight not age - with puberty beginning when a heifer reaches 40% of its mature body weight. Heifers which have shown heat at least twice before insemination for the first time at 15 months have the best fertility and the best chance of getting pregnant.
The average dairy calf faces many potential stressors in the preweaning period including birth, transportation, disbudding/castration, weaning and mixing.
Most of these stressors are inevitable in calf rearing production systems but are manageable if the calf timeline is considered.
When discussing colostrum management, attention is often focused on the calf. However, to produce a quality-first feed we need to begin with the cow in her transition period. Dam colostrum contains farm-specific antibodies making it so valuable to the calves on that farm, providing protection against the pathogens, they are most likely to encounter.
It is well known that the early introduction of starter feed is essential for rumen development, but often forage is not offered until close to or post-weaning. Many recent studies have shown that offering forage during the pre-weaning phase has benefits in pre-weaning growth rates as well as aiding the transition from a milk-based diet to solid feed.
Early turnout to grass can be hugely beneficial in terms of improving daily liveweight gain and calf health whilst also reducing rearing costs. However, the turnout phase is again another time in the calves lives where we are introducing them to a new environment, therefore there are a few things we can do to make this time a little less stressful.
