Welcome to the second week of our Focus on calves. The coverage is warranted considering the amount of work and effort that goes into feeding and rearing calves on beef and dairy farms across the country.

This week’s Focus looks at reducing labour in calf rearing through better facilities, making sure your calves stay healthy and by implementing a feeding policy that is less labour-intensive and still produces good results.

Tommy Heffernan covers all aspects of calving the cow – from the first signs of calving to when to intervene and what to do if things are not going right. Meanwhile, William Conlon looks at calf hutches that help to reduce the workload for the farmer.

Stephen Connolly reports from the Positive Farmers Conference about an innovative calf rearing regime. Inspired from a trip to Missouri, Michael Bateman implemented a high meal feeding and low milk feeding regime and has been getting good results.