Everyone must hang their hat somewhere, I am increasingly going back to basics with everything. This is behind my concept of optimizing biology in farming systems. It is no different with calf health.
Beginning with the fundamental understanding of what the calf wants. This means that for a dairy calf we must really know and understand their natural biology to build systems to optimize both biology and performance.
The big challenge calves are born immunoniave (need colostrum). We remove them from their mothers to rear them. The big issue of the day is WHY? Cow-calf separation. In the attached video I explain why I’m currently very happy with this system. This is when after removal we take an approach towards optimizing their biology in rearing systems.
For the next month, I’m getting out to discuss calf rearing with vets around the country.
- Colostrum
- Calf comfort
- Feeding
- Hygiene
- Housing
- Treatments
A lot of the focus will be on these six key areas, Read More…