Calf & Youngstock

With rising costs of production, including energy, water and milk replacers, farmers may be tempted to look for potential savings when it comes to feeding calves.

Whether finding yourself in the position of considering moving from milk replacer to whole milk, or rethinking how you feed whole milk, pasteurisation must be explored.

Farmers are looking to produce strong, healthy, profitable animals, we know most of the development happens in the pre-weaning stage, this is an important stage that will set them up for the future.

Building strong immunity, maintaining good growth rates, high health and decreasing disease exposure are all the factors that go towards improving calf survival and rearing a calf that will be more productive in the herd. Calves thrive on routine, if there are too many changes and not enough consistency are your calves trying to tell you something?

Over the past year dairy commodity markets have shown unprecedented volatility, and we have experienced some ingredients, such as skimmed milk powder and sweet whey powder, reaching historically high levels. This coupled with increasing vegetable oil prices mean that the cost of calf milk replacer (CMR) has continued to rise, which inevitably adds cost to calf rearing systems.

Problems in calf buildings usually are due to imbalances in one or more of these five separate factors; Moisture, Fresh Air, Air Speed, Temperature and Hygiene. 

As calf and youngstock specialists, we often discuss different rearing systems and technological advances that can help improve your current calf-rearing system. We work closely with a network of engineers to ensure the machine is installed in the right position, with alternative feed programmes in order to benefit your rearing system.

Improving the lifetime yield of a cow is a top priority in dairy businesses as we continue to improve efficiencies. This can be impacted from the moment a newborn heifer calf arrives, to when the animal enters the parlour at the start of its first lactation.

While there are lots of areas to focus on to set a heifer up for a healthy and productive life in the herd, I’ve narrowed it down to my top three areas to prioritise pre-calving.

Making the most of grass, planning winter forage ahead of time and focusing on heifers are three non-negotiables for a profitable suckler business this year and longer-term.

In episode seven of the Wynnstay Agri-hub podcast, Tony and I discuss what suckler beef businesses should focus on to enable profitability. Although input costs are unprecedentedly high, the current price of beef is buoyant, with good cull cow, finishing and store beef prices.

Jon Miller of Hollins Farm has been using Bloom milk replacer for the last two and a half years and says "it is by far the best milk replacer we have been on".  The heifers have performed exceptionally well on it and we are having heifers calve down at 24 months yielding 34.6L with the highest achieving 42L at 43 DIM, with a first lactation pregnancy rate of 36.2% and a whole herd pregnancy rate of 29% from heifers that have been reared on Bloom, something which they are immensely proud of.

Rob Noad of Woodhouse Farm says "Stellar is delivering the growth rates we want, and calves do love consistency and routine, so the winning combination of a good milk replacer product fed accurately through an automated machine makes such a difference".

Heat stress in the dry cow pen can have significant implications on both cow and unborn calf performance. Heat stressed cows have decreased dry matter intakes, increased metabolic stress, poor transition and decreased milk production and immune response. A factor which can often become over- looked is the impact heat stress can have on the calf in utero, which can impact its future on your farm.

Due to improved animal welfare, new regulations and an overall push in the industry, the next topic will not be a concern to all, but it is still an area for improvement.