At our ‘Wean Soirée’ events in Gore and Winton, some of our local calf rearers shared some of their challenges and key learnings. While many are out of their control - such as the weather - they shared a great list of things they do. The discussions, bubbles and food was great and an interesting challenge was the interference of fathers/husbands and grandfathers! The biggest takeaway tips and tricks suggested by the calf rearers were:

Weak Calves

• Get poorly calves on electrolytes asap.
• Using electrolytes recipe off DairyNZ website - great!
• Use heat lamps for small/sick/newborn calves in poor weather.
• Use calf covers/jackets on small calves/newborns.
• Isolate sick calves into a separate pen.

Hygiene

• Wash calves in wheelbarrow when get muddy/wet - saves lives but creates ++ laundry!
• Use a backpack cleaning/disinfectant spray – easy.
• Spread Stalosan F - disinfectant powder for pens.
• Don’t forget to clean and disinfect ear tagging kit.
• Scrub all feeding equipment well with hot water and detergent.

Weaning

• Weighing calves helps with accurate weaning.
• Weaning calves once at pasture helps reduce the check in growth.
• Wean based on weight at 100kg.
• Wean calves off milk by reducing the volume of water in milk feed and keeping powder amount same.

Welfare & Identification

• Using local anaesthetic and pain relief when disbudding calves.
• Sedation as well as using local anaesthetic for doing disbudding AND at same time doing the ear tagging, BVD testing and ringing bull calves worked really well.
• Tagging ears of calves including DNA tags for BVD detection before going outside.
• Shelter makes a difference.

Treatments

• Use of “benzonite” powder for helping bind up the guts of calves.
• Use of products such as ‘Biobrew’ (multi vitamins) and 7 in 1 (Clostridia vaccine).

Feeding Colostrum

• Warm fresh milk every day is best.
• Controlling milk intake helps calves eat more calf meal.
• Prioritising colostrum management.
• Using simple colour coding systems (i.e. coloured stickers indicating better vs worst quality colostrum).
• Feeding enough whey powder in milk feeds.
• Feed at least 2L of colostrum, usually 3L.
• Keeping calves in until eating more grain/meal.
• Collect fresh colostrum in large VAT.
• Optiguard - adlib or mixed into milk.
• Use a refractometer to measure the quality of colostrum.

Process & People

• Best thing when rearing calves = good staff
• Get up ~3/4am to pick up new born calves!!
• Key to success is good communication between farm team.
• Aim to pick up calves at least 4 x a day during calving.
• Require proper treatment by bobby trucks (those moving the calves.
• Invest time into your facilities and tools - this will make your life and their’s a lot better.

Rearer Challenges

• Fathers/Husbands/Grandfathers interfering/not believing in ‘gold colostrum’.
• Avoiding ear infections from dirty ear tag equipment.
• Keeping calves indoors due to poor weather.
• Disease build up in sheds over the season.
• Dealing with family/worker injuries (husband broke leg during calving).
• Calving large calves is a physical challenge.
• Having less than adequate facilities makes job harder.
• Getting calves to eat enough milk before weaning is a challenge.
• Juggling family life always a challenge.
• Keeping jerseys alive especially with bad weather.
• Long calving seasons are difficult.
• Nowhere to isolate sick calves.
• Bobby calves and the bobby truck – poor service, worried about animal welfare (late arriving, driving too fast, calves being bruised and bashed on arrival at works due to ‘mad’ driving).
• The weather!