Guide to calf rearing systems

Sunday 07 September 2008 00:00

Guide to calf rearing systems

Have you reviewed your calf rearing system in the last couple of years? “It’s essential to do this regularly, ideally every year, simply because great investments have been made in cattle genetics during the last decade, and yet calf feeding and management practices have remained largely unchanged, which may in turn be preventing animals from achieving their true genetic potential,” says Volac International’s calf milk replacer & feeding equipment specialist Maggie Gould.

The continuing use of traditional feeding systems was reflected in a survey of 297 dairy producers carried out by Volac International earlier this year. See figure 1.

Figure 1: Type of calf feeding equipment used by dairy farmers

“We were surprised to find that over 80% of farmers continue to use bucket systems,” says Mrs Gould. “Whilst traditional calf rearing systems can be cost-effective, the practice of feeding once or twice a day, and limiting calf milk replacer intake to weaning, results in restricted early growth and requires calves to catch up later,” she says. “This practice has a low cost per kilo daily liveweight gain to weaning, however it also leads to low liveweight gains in the first few months and may not be the most cost effective solution overall”.

She adds: “This is particularly important if rearing a high genetic merit calf, which must be viewed from the moment it is born as the high performing cow of the future. Build a feeding system and management plan to maximise its performance potential.”

Farmers have an array of calf rearing systems to choose from - individual pens or hutches fed by buckets, or groups fed by machines, according to XL Vets’ Neil Laing of the Clyde Veterinary Group. “It’s a case of selecting the system which fits your own bespoke action plan for your farm.”

Mr Laing offers the following Guide to calf rearing systems.

1. Individual pens or hutches: for example, buckets, buckets with teats

The pros

• Calves get individual attention and feeding.
• Feeding can be controlled very precisely with measured amounts given in one or more daily feeds. Problems are evident if milk feeds are not taken. Exposure to infections, particularly those causing scours, are vastly reduced as mixing is minimal.

The cons

• Individual pens are very labour intensive and require a large area for relatively small numbers of calves.
• Socialisation of calves is limited; contact is normally over a gate or solid partition.
• Calf exercise is also limited.
• Feed is often restricted which could limit growth rates.

2. Group rearing: for example, Milkbar, ad-lib systems

The pros

• Far less labour intensive and more calves can be kept on the same floor space.
• Calves can either be fed in troughs at defined intervals, often following on from individual pens, or from a machine where feeding is on an ad-lib basis rather than at set times, thereby more likely representing the calf’s natural feeding pattern.
• Calves can socialise more easily and exercise more freely.

The cons

• Infection spread is easier in larger groups, particularly scours and pneumonias.
• Unless transponder collars are used, it can be harder to check individual calves are taking the correct amount of milk or have stopped drinking which may indicate an infection.
• If calves do become ill, they should be separated during any treatment which then requires individual penning.
• The feeding machine needs to be kept very clean to limit spread of infection between calves, and ensure the tubes don’t get blocked.
• Ad-lib systems pose difficulties in controlling amounts of milk taken by calves because they feed as often as they like. This can lead to nutritional scours when calves take too much milk and make weaning harder as it can be difficult to reduce intake of milk and encourage concentrate feeding.

3. Group Rearing (programmed feeding): for example, computerised feeders

The pros

• Far less labour intensive and more calves can be kept on the same floor space.
• Calves can socialise more easily and exercise more freely.
• Calf collars or covers over tags with microchips identify calves individually and control feeding levels precisely. The systems prevent overfeeding - the machine stops delivering milk to calves that have already had their programmed daily ration of milk.
• Computerised feeding systems identify calves that don’t take in their daily amount and alert the stockman to investigate that particular calf.
• Computerised feeding systems can deliver all the benefits of machine feeding with some of the individual management benefits of an individual rearing system.

The cons

• Infection spread is easier in larger groups, particularly scours and pneumonias.
• The feeding machine needs to be kept very clean to limit spread of infection between calves, and ensure the tubes don’t get blocked.

Mr Laing adds: “There are two basic ways of delivering milk to a calf either through a teat or straight from a bucket, which requires training the calf to properly suckle milk.

“There are benefits of teaching a calf to suck milk as it will stimulate the oesophageal groove reflex in the stomach ensuring the milk passes straight into the abomasum, or true stomach. If calves do not suckle milk can enter the rumen where it is not properly digested and you’ll find yourself with so called ‘rumenal drinkers’ which fail to thrive until weaned.”

Mr Laing suggests that anyone interested in reviewing their systems should research all possibilities and discuss their requirements with the equipment supplier.

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