Summer Scour Syndrome is a relatively new issue on farms which are in the business of rearing calves. The illness can have a serious impact on calf performance.
Typical symptoms of the condition in calves include the sudden onset of scour and in more severe cases, wasting, mouth ulceration, weight loss, blindness, and death in extreme cases.
It is a condition that all calf-to-beef farmers need to look out for in their calves and ABP Food Group’s Advantage Beef Programme‘s farm liaison team leader Amie Coonan has outlined a number of tips on preventing an outbreak of the condition.
Coonan said that with the recent fine weather, a lot of calves have been let to grass for the first time and it is essential to ensure they don’t have any setbacks.
Summer scour prevention
The first step, she said, is to ensure calves are weaned off milk properly. Calves should be eating 1-2kg of concentrates/head/day and consuming high levels of either straw or hay.
Once calves have been weaned off milk, they should be retained indoors for at least a week to allow them to adjust to their new diet.
The best pasture for calves going to grass is stemmy, older-type swards and ideally, calves should be kept on these for a few weeks post-turnout.
Calves are selective grazers and will eat the top section of grass which has the highest level of sugars and nitrogen (N) and lowest levels of fibre.
Young calves consuming high levels of lush grass can suffer from an imbalance in rumen pH, which causes poor digestion and therefore scour.
Strip wires can be used to encourage calves to graze stem content along with the lush leaf content.
Alternatively, fibre in the form of hay or straw can be offered to calves in the first few weeks after turnout.
This is common practice on many of the Advantage Beef Programme farms that are rearing calves and it is surprising the levels of straw or hay that calves will consume, even when at grass.
Farmers should avoid letting calves onto swards that have recently received an application of fertiliser.
Coonan also noted that a number of feed merchants are now offering calf rations that include buffers and yeasts which aid rumination and help calves maintain good gut-bacteria levels.
Concluding, the Advantage Beef Programme officer said that if any symptoms of scour or setbacks are seen in calves, the best advice is to consult a veterinary practitioner.
Where scour is observed in calves, farmers should consider taking a dung sample to identify if the problem is coccidiosis or a heavy heavy worm burden.