Farmers informed about right conditions for rearing calves

The speaker was Dr. Aaron Brown, Technical Sales Manager with Trouw Nutrition as he gave a presentation to a public meeting of the Club sponsored by the Vaughan Trust.

Aaron graduated from Queen’s University Belfast and travelled to New Zealand before spending four years researching the rearing of dairy calves through Queens University and Hillsborough. He joined Trouw Nutrition in 2022.

Speaking on “Housing calves to manage health and optimise performance,” Aaron said farmers rearing calves are working with susceptible animals but there are great opportunities to maximise the animals’ performances later in their lives especially with regard to feed efficiency and energy intake.

He said calves which pick up serious diseases in early life result in a greater risk for recurring illnesses and possibly mortality.

He said heifers with pneumonia in the first 30 days of their lives will be two and a half times more likely to die while those that survive will have less growth and reduced milk yield in their first lactation.

He told farmers the goal was to minimise stress in young calves and building on the needs of the calf such as warm, dry bedding, draught free with good light levels.

A damp environment increases the effect of low temperatures for calves.

He also said more space given to calves reduced the disease risk with small groups of calves of four to eight having higher intakes and performance while larger groups sizes of more than 15 increased the risks of respiratory disease.