The Advantage Beef Programme (ABP) Demonstration (Demo) Farm is a 280ac farm in Co. Carlow operating a dairy calf-to-beef system.
The purpose of the farm is to demonstrate best practice to members of the beef processor’s recently launched Advantage Beef Programme, which offers farmers an additional 20c/kg ‘Sustainability Bonus’ on its factory beef price.
The farm doesn’t have any purpose-built calf-rearing sheds and instead, has converted a dry-bedded shed to suit its calf-rearing operation – which buys in approximately 400 calves every year.
Over the past few weeks calves have started to arrive on the farm.
In early March, Agriland paid the farm a visit to find out more about its calf-rearing system.
The ABP staff members, Sean Maher and Amy Coonan, were on hand to explain the calf-rearing strategy on the farm.
ABP calves
When Agriland visited the farm in early March, there were 185 calves on-farm from 20 different sires.
This spring, the farm aims to have 410 calves secured on-farm by mid-April.
Some of the calf breeds on the farm include:
- Limousin;
- Angus;
- Hereford;
- Aubrac;
- Belgian Blue;
- Friesian.
The average calf weight on arrival at the farm has been 63kg and the target weight for weaning calves off-milk is 90-95kg.
It takes approximately six weeks from arrival until calves reach the target weaning weight.
On arrival, calves are unloaded and are given an anti-inflammatory injection to reduce the stress of arriving in a new environment.
Calves are then penned and left to rest. Then, 24 hours after arrival, calves are vaccinated intranasally for pneumonia and are weighed and graded according to their size.
A calf probiotic is fed on the farm which Sean said is useful for settling calves into a once-a-day (OAD) feeding programme.
The probiotic used has helped reduce scouring incidents on the farm as it improves the calves’ overall gut health.
Calves also receive a double shot for clostridial diseases before going to grass and are Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) vaccinated three to four-weeks later.
OAD feeding
The farm operates an OAD feeding system and calves are fed at 7:00a.m every morning.
Sean explained that with OAD feeding “it is very important to be consistent when feed times”.
The switch to OAD feeding has helped reduce the labour input also.
“There has been no change in calf performance since switching from twice a day feeding to once a day feeding,” Sean said.
Calf health
On calf health, the farm takes a proactive management approach with a robust vaccination programme in place and hygiene maintained to a high standard.
As the farm has no purpose-built calf-rearing shed, yorkshire boarding was installed in existing sheds, as well as fans and air tubes, to keep a more consistent climate for the calves
The use of calf jackets has proved very useful for calves which suffered setbacks from chills or scour.
In 2021, the farm reared a total of 409 calves and lost four (a 1% mortality) during the calf-rearing stage.
Sourcing calves for the ABP farm
The newest ABP team member, Amy Coonan, explained that all calves on the ABP demo farm are sourced directly from dairy farms and therefore a full record of the calf’s breeding and birth data is available before purchase.
The ABP Demo Farm places a huge emphasis on sourcing calves from dairy farms with good colostrum management.
Amy explained that when a calf is born, it has no immunity and needs to get that immunity from the cow through colostrum.
Ideally, calves need 3L of colostrum within the first two hours after birth.
Preference is also given to buying calves from herds where scour vaccination programmes are in place.
Calves are bedded every day with clean, fresh straw and have straw available to them in racks to eat from.
Straw is hugely important in the calf’s diet as it scratches the rumen, helping it to grow and develop.
All calves have clean drinking water readily available in the pens too. Amy explained that water in a young calf goes into a different stomach than milk replacer.
Milk replacer bypasses the rumen and goes to the abomasum, whereas the water goes into the rumen and is used to help break down the straw and concentrates.
Calves are offered an 18% calf starter-nut, ad-lib, which is freshly topped up every day.
It is important that a calf is eating at least 1kg of concentrates before being weaned off milk.
Milk replacer used should be of good quality in order to get good calf performance. Ideally, protein should be between 20-25% to promote growth and fetal development. The oil content should be 17-18% and the ash content should be no more than 7.5%.
Once old enough, calves will be let to grass on the farm by day and eventually will be left on grass full time.