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The first of the Animal Health Ireland and Teagasc Calf Care events took place in Cork and Meath in early January. Reducing disease pressure in calves was a running theme at the event on the Teagasc farm in Kilworth.
Two vets, Charles Chavasse and Kieran O’Mahony, both said that prevention starts with disinfection. Charles said the best disinfection is fresh air, as it is free and in abundant supply. He spoke about the design of calf sheds. Fresh air is needed to remove stale air.
“Bugs can survive indoors for over 20 hours, but they can only survive outside in the fresh air for about 20 minutes. The key is to get enough fresh air into calf sheds, which itself acts as a disinfectant,” Charles said.
Charles Chavasse speaking at the AHI event.
He said farmers should measure the air inlet and the air outlet in calf sheds. The inlet should be two to four times the size of the outlet. The outlet should be at the top of the shed to allow the stale air to move out.
He’s against the use of space boarding or vented sheeting at the sides of calf sheds. He says space boarding lets in too much rain. Vented galvanise or cladding can be cold and only 5% of most vented sheeting is actually vents, so the sides of sheds need to be high to let in enough air. This can be costly and lead to cold sheds.
Yorkshire boarding is his preference. Unlike space boarding, there are two rows of 6in boards with a 1in gap between boards nailed to a 2in-wide board. The boards on each row should be staggered so the gap is covered, preventing rain and draughts from entering. Because the boarding is made from wood, it is warmer and more insulating than steel.
A calf shed 10ft high at the eaves with Yorkshire boarding is ideal.
The air outlet should be 0.04m sq/calf and this can be measured by estimating the width of the gap in the roof of the shed. The air inlet should be measured by the width of the gap at both sides of the shed.
Because Yorkshire boarding lets in more air than vented sheets and doesn’t let in rain, Charles says that calf sheds can be lower. “A calf shed 10ft high at the eaves with Yorkshire boarding is ideal. It’s high enough for the shed to be cleaned out by a tractor, yet it isn’t too big or cold. Some farmers want the calf shed to double as a straw storage shed, but they are two very different objectives,” he said.
Also speaking at the event was Ballylanders vet Kieran O’Mahony. According to Kieran, there is a difference between disinfectants and antiseptics. Disinfectants are powerful chemicals used to kill bugs in the farm environment, such as sheds, walls and floors, whereas antiseptics are less severe and are used for cleaning and sterilising equipment, such as ropes, calving jack and for disinfecting navals.
The procedure recommended by him for cleaning out calf and calving sheds is to clean (remove bedding), wash (powerwash), let it dry, disinfect (knapsack) and then let it dry again.
“It’s not always practical to let the shed dry, especially during the calving season, but the longer a shed is left clean and dry there is a much lesser risk of bugs surviving from one season to the next,” he said.
He said that not all disinfectants will kill bugs like coccidiosis and cryptosporidium. Well-known products such as Sorgene 5 are not effective against these bugs. Special disinfectant is required if cryptosporidium or coccidiosis are problems.
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