As we head towards Christmas and the New Year, preparations need to begin for the arrival and feeding of calves on farms.
During the spring period, the management/feeding of calves is one of the areas that take up the most amount of time on farms.
Although some farms have invested in automatic calf feeding systems, many have not, and are continuing to use teat feeders for their calves.
Feeding of calves
With calving still a few weeks away, farmers should be preparing by completing an assessment of all of the calf feeding equipment they have, and do not have.
Ideally, you should have enough feeders for each pen to prevent the transfer of disease from one pen to another. It is important to ensure that all feeders have been cleaned thoroughly.
Once you have determined how many feeders are present, you should then determine if any are damaged and need replacing.
The teats on all the feeders should be replaced, and a number of spares should also be obtained. The teats should also be replaced on automatic calf feeders.
Teats that were used last year should not be used again this year, as they may be a source of harmful bacteria.
Farmers that are using automatic feeders should also be changing the teats, and ensuring that there are spares on the farm.
Calf shed
You should also begin the preparation of the calf shed, and ensure that all of the required supplies are present for when needed.
A focus should be placed on biosecurity, as this should reduce the level of sickness within the calf shed.
Start getting into habit of dipping your feet in the foot bath at the entrance from now, so it becomes second nature by the time calving is in full swing.
Ideally, a calf shed would be treated as a clean room, this is almost impossible to achieve on a farm, but measures can be taken.
Control the access to the shed; have foot baths or dips in place; avoid wearing dirty clothing into the shed; and keep the shed as clean as possible.
Feeders
It is also important that you check and clean the other feeders that will be needed for calves this coming spring.
Troughs and hay/straw racks need to be checked, to ensure that they are clean, and secondly that they are not damaged in a way that could cause injury to one of the calves.
Offering calves a roughage, such as hay or straw and a concentrate is vital for rumen development.
Calves at birth are more similar to pigs than older cattle, as they are monogastric – meaning they have a single-compartment stomach, because of this, developing their rumen is vital during the rearing period.