With the main spring-calving season almost upon us, there is growing optimism that it’ll be a decent year for the calf trade.

From the beef farmer’s perspective, increased supply of beef breed calves from the dairy herd is likely to mean a reduction in the price being paid per calf, plus they will be of better quality.

Secondly, one of the big concerns leading into this spring was the cost of milk replacer. The cost of milk replacer has increased by 15% compared to this time last year but it’s still back on what the peak prices for milk replacer were last summer. At that time, prices were up 30% to 40% compared to last spring.

For dairy farmers, there is optimism that there will be buyers for calves this spring. Beef prices are good and the cattle trade is hot, so it suggests that the demand for calves should be as good as it was in other years.

For dairy farmers who don’t have the facilities or manpower to rear all calves themselves, they are very exposed to the market for calves. Additional housing for calves is something many farmers are talking about and Martin Merrick has a lovely example of a good calf shed here.

Meanwhile, Adam Woods has the details on the new Teagasc dairy calf-to-beef farm at Fethard, Co Tipperary.

This 270ac farm will be the flagship farm in the Teagasc dairy calf-to-beef programme and is a place that many farmers will get to visit over the course of the project. This is run in conjunction with Dawn and Carbery.

I sit down with Teagasc experts Emer Kennedy and Alison Sinnott to get answers to common questions on calf care and calf rearing. There are usually lots of issues when it comes to rearing calves so it’s great to get the experts’ view.