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.
Housing challenges often compromise calf rearing performance, but attention to detail in areas such as nutrition and hygiene can help offset these weaknesses.
Recently, a project team based at AFBI Hillsborough recorded a variety of different housing systems on commercial farms in Northern Ireland. The study was representative of practices on UK dairy units as a whole and certainly highlighted both strengths and weaknesses in terms of replacement heifer calf management practices.
In recent years there has been a significant push to calve heifers younger to become more efficient. The benefits of this have been well documented including significantly reducing rearing costs, which account as one of the largest costs on farm.
Whether a dairy or beef herd, the ultimate goal of rearing is to get calves off to the best possible start to ensure they reach their maximum production potential.
Exposure to challenges, for example, scours or respiratory disease can eat into farm profits by negatively impacting calves’ health status and physical performance. Calf rearers are encouraged to uphold good management practices in order to effectively avoid diseases occurring in the first place.
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?
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.
Cryptosporidiosis is one of the most common causes of calf scour. Calves are usually affected shortly after birth and develop scour at around 5-7 days. Infected calves suffer permanent damage to the intestinal lining which reduces their ability to absorb nutrients and water. It can affect growth rates and push back the age at first calving.
Whether it is beef or dairy it is important to grow calves efficiently to meet slaughter weights sooner. Standard target weights of pre-weaning weights are greater than >0.7kg/day and post-weaning DLWG of >0.8kg/day - >1.0kg/day for dairy or beef respectively.
The British dairy industry prides itself on being a pioneer in dairy cattle welfare; it is a top priority for the sector.
However, the fate of dairy bull calves is not a secret; it is a key focus area for the industry. While the rearing of bull calves for the beef market is high, and several industry initiatives continue to champion improvements in calf health, welfare and survival, there is still room for improvement. The industry has committed to making further progress in this area with the development of the GB Calf Strategy. The core objective of the strategy is to find practical solutions to reduce the number of calves that are routinely euthanised on farms. You can read more about the GB Calf Strategy on the AHDB website.
