Last Saturday evening, I was just about to leave the calf shed. The door vibrated and Tim’s voice sounded. “Look what I found!” I didn’t dare to look. I said, “please don’t say you’ve another calf.” My body was aching with tiredness as happens during the calving season. “Yes, a fine girl,” he enthused. That meant a Friesian- or Jersey-cross heifer for the herd.

A few weeks back, I couldn’t wait to have calves to feed. Then, I couldn’t wait for a break. I directed Tim to Pen 4, the current newborn pen. We had 40 heifers calved in the last two weeks of January and the first week of February. It was the plan to calve down the heifers before the cows.

When breeding, we used fixed-time artificial insemination with dairy sexed semen. That would mean that 90% of the calves born would be heifers. They would also be the highest genetic merit animals in the herd and so their offspring will give the biggest jump in the EBI (Economic Breeding Index) of the young stock.

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The re-calibration of EBI figures last year annoys me. I understand the reasoning but hate the lower numbers. Of course, it’s just a number to get used to. EBI is still the best predictor of on-farm profit. It had to be updated to ensure it continues to be relevant.

Old rules still apply

The timing for the feeding of the calf was just perfect. She was about one hour old. I find it’s the best time, as the calf’s suck is at its strongest and she hadn’t sucked the cow so she was completely receptive to me. Feeding newborn calves is definitely the best job on the farm.

I fed the heifer’s warmed colostrum that was saved from the spring of 2025. Don’t forget that the bath of water you thaw and warm it in must not be more than hand-hot. If it’s too hot, you will damage the immunoglobulins (antibodies). Patience is necessary. Heifers don’t always have enough colostrum for the calf and, more importantly, are difficult to milk on their own.

I had 70 litres frozen and we needed it all. The cycle of saving colostrum for spring 2027 starts again as soon the cows have started calving. They have received vaccinations, including Rotavirus, and so it is critical that the calves get the colostrum within, preferably, two hours and certainly before six hours to absorb the antibodies and so build a good immune system. It will stand to them for life.

Patience is necessary. Heifers don’t always have enough colostrum for the calf and, more importantly, are difficult to milk on their own

It must be clean, first milk and with a refractometer index of above 22.

I note that the colostrum we are freezing generally has an index 26/27, which is great quality.

Other things have changed too. Our preparatory calf meeting would usually be long. I’d have a list. Colm would have one and last year’s one would be electronically accessed. This year, it took 10 minutes. The milk price has fallen and input costs remain high. The price of replacer is much the same as last year. Teat replacement for feeders and that kind of stuff is expensive.

All systems go

Luckily, we are good at minding our milk warmers, utensils, feeders buckets and bottles. All were stored away. Calfage feed was dropped because it was too expensive. Bark mulch was used again under the straw. It provides wonderful soakage. So, our list was shorter than usual this year including straw, milk replacer, acidifier and calf pencils. We also purchased some electrolyte hoping not to use it but needing to have it on hand.

It is all systems go as the calves arrive at a steady pace. We are very close to two thirds calved.

The stability and seasonality of spring is grounding.