Autumn calving for 2023 will soon be getting underway, as dairy farms gear-up for producing milk this winter.
While the autumn-calving season on some farms has gotten started, for most farms suppling milk in winter contracts, late September to early October is when the bulk of cows start to calve.
As September is a mere few weeks away, now is a good time for farmers to start getting sheds and other facilities ready for the arrival of calves.
By now, all the supplies that will be required for the calving season should be on the farm or acquired over the coming days.
It is important to have all supplies ready, such as:
- Disposable plastic gloves (long and short);
- Gel and paper towels;
- Calving ropes (minimum of two pairs);
- Calving jack;
- Oxytocin, calcium bottles or boluses and magnesium;
- Disinfectant for navel;
- Brix refractometer to test colostrum;
- Stomach tubes – have a minimum of two to have a separate one for electrolytes/sick calves and another for feeding colostrum to calves;
- Calf tags, notebook or a phone app to record calving information;
- Infrared lamp for sick calves;
- Footbaths with disinfectant.
These should be ready, at hand, for when they are needed so that time is not lost having to go get them.
Autumn calving
Calf sheds should be inspected to ensure that they are ready for the calves to enter.
By now, the sheds should have been cleaned out and disinfected, but for many farms a completed cleaning out and disinfecting of the shed may not be possible.
On some farms, there may still be some spring calves remaining, so pens in the shed need to be prepared for calves rather then the whole shed.
Ahead of the arrival of calves it is also a good idea to complete a few final checks of the calving and calf shed.
Some of the key things to check include that all the drinkers are working, no gates or damaged or broken, and the sheds are fully cleaned and disinfected for the start of calving.
At least one calving pen should have straw ready for the potential of early arrivals.
There is also no harm in having some of the calf shed ready with straw in general, so that there is no panic in a few weeks to get the sheds ready.
Before putting straw into these sheds however, farmers should complete any final work that is required, as mentioned already, such as fixing drinkers or finishing the disinfecting of sheds.
Getting ahead of yourself now should make it a little easier when the calving season kicks-off on the farm.