Dairygold has a “zero-tolerance” approach to animal welfare issues, especially around dairy bull calves, the co-op’s CEO Jim Woulfe told vets at a Cattle Association of Veterinary Ireland (CAVI) conference last week.

“The customer of today has zero tolerance to euthanasia,” Woulfe said.

Responding to a question during a panel discussion, he said it was a real concern for the Irish dairy industry as a whole.

Calf care

“We cannot adopt New Zealand practices into Ireland. We can adopt them in terms of grassland management but not when it comes to care of the calf or the bull calf.

“Farmers don’t have a licence to deal with animals in a non-caring way.”

His comments were echoed later by chair of Veterinary Ireland Conor Geraghty. “Ireland is not New Zealand. We have to have high animal welfare standards,” Geraghty said.

“There are always risks with expansion and unwanted dairy bull calves and I think the Department of Agriculture is working hard to ensure there are markets for them.

“The current beef crisis is a risk because beef farmers may not see the profit in rearing these calves so it is something that we’re acutely aware of and hopefully be able to create solutions to.”

Department figures show there has been an increase in the number of dairy bull calves under six weeks disposed of in knackeries over the last number of years.

Part of the solution put forward by Doreen Corridan of Munster Bovine was to ensure that dairy-cross calves had “added value” that would mean they would meet “factory specs.”

“The bobby calf is not acceptable to the dairy industry,” she said, adding that sexed semen could also help the situation but that it needed to improve before it could make a difference at farm level.

“Sexed semen isn’t there yet, because the conception rate isn’t high enough and we need high conception for our six-week calving,” she said.