Update on Dairy Calf Rearing; Dairy Crest Sells Dairies

Many farms have been misguided in their approach to feeding dairy calves, the Global Dairy Calf Symposium heard recently.

For decades, calf rearing principles have worked on restrictive feeding, resulting in generations of heifers being raised for a low plane of nutrition, experts told the Nutreco conference in Eindhoven.

The livestock sector has learnt that calves are metabolically programmed in the pre-natal stages and in the first weeks of life, an insight which should alter nutrition planning.

This was the message of Professor Martin Kaske, senior lecturer at the Vetsuisse Faculty in Zurich, who said that established calf rearing protocols are far removed from the animals physiology.

The thinking 20 years ago was to push fed milk low, this was for convenience and the belief that it turned the calf onto solid feeds sooner, said Professor Kaske.

However, doing this sends messages to a calfs metabolism, preparing it for a life of sub-optimal nutrition and subsequently lower production.

What you sacrifice early on cannot be made up later in adult life, he told TheCattleSite. He added that dairy calves are capable of amazing growth and that concentrate intake is not suppressed by intensive feeding.

Leonel Leal, ruminant researcher at Nutreco, said: Calves have been shown to benefit from a higher plane of nutrition in early months. Research shows an enhanced pre-weaning diet leads to increased milk production later on.

The first eight weeks of life are instrumental in mammary gland development, he added.

Also at the Symposium, Alastair Hayton, a director at Synergy Farm Health, offered advice to farmers to assess the effectiveness of their heifer rearing system.

Bluetongue has continued its spread through Serbia, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina this week.

And finally, in company news this week, Dairy Crest has agreed to sell its Dairies operations to Mller UK & Ireland Group to focus on its cheese and packet butter and spreads businesses.