Getting calves off to the best possible start is crucial if growth targets are to be met, rearing costs kept under control and heifers in a position to calve down at 24 months.

With CAFRE benchmarking results highlighting that it takes on average £1,813 to get a heifer to the point of calving, with a range from bottom to top 25% of £1,500 to £2,500, it is the second biggest cost on a dairy farm, after concentrate feed.

“The biggest driver is age at calving. Every day a heifer goes over 24 months before she calves is costing you £2 per heifer per day.

‘‘We have got to drive the growing process as efficiently as possible from the start,” emphasised Richard Moore from Thompsons, who was among the speakers at a heifer rearing meeting held in Armagh last week.

There are two essentials to follow when the calf hits the ground – good hygiene in the calving pen, with a dry bed of straw, and ensuring the calf gets colostrum, ideally within the first two hours, but definitely within the first six hours of life.

According to Dr Amanda Dunn from Bonanza Calf Nutrition, each dairy-bred calf should be fed 10% of their bodyweight, which for a 40kg calf is four litres of colostrum.

“Feed as quickly as possible after birth.

‘‘As long as you get enough in, you probably don’t have to worry about them for 24 hours – the calf might not be hungry if you go to feed it again after 12 hours,” she said.

She also highlighted the importance of following good practice – use first milk from the cow, and don’t leave colostrum in a jug in the parlour, as bacteria multiples rapidly, doubling every half hour.

Instead, any excess colostrum should be stored in a fridge or put in the freezer as soon as possible after milking. The quality should be ok for up to one year. Once removed, it should be warmed gradually to body temperature (around 40oc).

The calf should be kept on transition milk for the first four days before moving on to milk replacer.

Concentrate feed should be introduced early on, and available ad lib from two to three days of age. With milk fed to a young calf transferred directly to the abomasum, it is this other feed that goes into the rumen and influences development there.

According to Richard Moore, concentrate feeding is the key driver of rumen development, and, in particular, the papillae on the wall of the rumen. He maintained that calves do better on pellets than a coarse ration as there is less sorting of the feed, and advised farmers to offer clean straw as the main forage source for the first 12 weeks.

“You also need to offer clean water. It is absolutely critical – the bugs in the rumen need something to work with,” he said.

Calves can be weaned when they are eating over 1.5kg per day of pellet. “Wean gradually over five days. Maintain an ad-lib ration. After 12 weeks the calves can move over to silage, but don’t forget, silage quality will have a big impact,” said Moore.

A survey by Thompsons which looked at the performance of heifers on 33 dairy farms across NI has highlighted a significant range in heifer weights at 15 months.

Conducted by Jemma McHugh during a gap year from her studies at Queen’s University, and utilising results from 33 farms with between 50 and 650 cows, the average weight of heifers at 15 months was 423kg, but with a range between the bottom and top 25% of 374kg to 441kg.

“The top 25% had more options because the heifers were stronger. It does pay to do a good job at the time,” said McHugh.

Trends from the survey showed that farms were feeding a range of milk replacer, although the top performers were generally using a skim-based product. They also had a good colostrum feeding protocol, good hygiene in pens, and were feeding transition milk over the first few days. Starter pellets were generally preferred over a coarse ration.

“A calf needs four litres of water for every 1kg of concentrate consumed. You need the water in there. I saw it time and time again, it gets left out because it is too much hassle,” said McHugh.

When it comes to the calf house, bigger is not always better, and the advice from Dr Christine Cummins from Bonanza Calf Nutrition is that no more than 50 calves (ideally 30) should be sharing the same air space in a house.

Within the house, group sizes should be limited to around 10, with no more than two weeks of an age gap between the youngest and oldest calf.

Machinery

Hygiene is very important and the house should be accessible to machinery so that it can be cleaned out at regular intervals.

Ventilation is also crucial to remove dirty air, but with no draughts, and ideally a solid barrier between pens, as gates can leave the calves a bit cold said Cummins.

Calf comfort

“Straw is the number one for calf comfort and insulation, as long as it is kept dry. The calf should be able to nestle down into the bed, so that you can’t see the legs,” she maintained.

Ideally, the lying and feeding area are kept separate, and canopies over the lying area work well for young calves. Calf jackets can be beneficial in sheds that are cold, but they should be washed between calves to prevent the spread of scour causing agents such as cryptosporidiosis.

Where computer feeders are used, group sizes tend to be bigger so it is important to have good drainage around the feeder to prevent a build-up of dirt.

“Also, don’t rely on a calf feeder to alert you to a sick calf.

‘‘You should be able to catch it before it goes off its feed,” said Cummins.