Hazell Mullins: It's not just the calves that grow up - how calf-rearing has changed
Hazell's calves with their jackets on
We are halfway through calving already on the farm; it is wild how quickly it passes after such a build-up. I had an interesting week as Philip Boucher Hayes came to visit the farm to discuss how calf-rearing on the farm has evolved over the past 20 or so years.
It was an interesting topic as I had never really sat down and really reflected about how things have changed over the past 15 to 20 years. Even in the last 11 years since I graduated, calf health has only gone from strength to strength.
I explained that a calf’s lower critical temperature is actually 15 degrees Celsius at birth, which means at temperatures lower than this, calves use energy to stay warm. This is vital energy that is more needed to support growth and a healthy immune system rather than to stay warm.
Over a three-week period, with each day their critical temperature lowers by a half of a degree, meaning that by three weeks old their new lower critical temperature is now about 1 degree Celsius.
If the days are very warm in spring, it is important to take the jackets off, especially if they are a few weeks old. They can be a spreader of disease, so it is vital that they are washed between batches of calves. The term “good drying out” has a whole new meaning on the farm now when it comes to washing calf jackets.
It was about five years ago that I really saw the popularity of calf jackets taking off on Irish farms and I jumped on this bandwagon at the time. Dad is a huge fan of them too and can see the benefit in using them for the thrive and comfort of the calf.
I remember the hue of red lamp being a huge part of my childhood and having calves that needed to spend a day or two under the lamp to survive. Truth be told, we have a red lamp on the farm, but we luckily haven’t had to use it in a year or two, a combination of better disease management and the emphasis on warmth in the sheds.
Straw is a fantastic insulator, aiming for a nesting score of three when possible, ensures the calves are extra toasty. A score 3/3 means that the calves legs are completely covered with straw when they are lying down, a score 2/3 means they are partial covered and score 1/3 is the legs are fully visible.
The score system is a simple and easy way of monitoring the requirement for straw on farm with so many benefits.
The conversation then progressed to colostrum management, how different things are now to when I was growing up. I can safely say they’re was never any frozen colostrum in the freezer like there is now.
It depended on the time of day whether the calf was left to take its chances to drink or the cow was milked and it was bucket-fed to the calf. It worked for the most part, but I can say that come March, we always had break downs of scour, and the calves would be quite sick, our old friend the red lamp was a busy bee.
All stored colostrum is frozen within three hours of collection and is tested before hand using a refractometer. I explained to Philip the advancement in colostrum measuring and how it has become mainstream on most farms now in Ireland. I know for sure that a refractometer was not present on the farm five years ago and now it's part of the furniture.
I think this is also due to the uptake in scour vaccine use and the importance of good colostrum management to get the benefit from the vaccine.
The magic number is again 22% Brix which is the goal for any colostrum especially one that is worthy of freezing. Once defrosted, it is important to keep it chilled in a fridge and use it within 48 hours.
The radio interview was an interesting take on calf-rearing; it’s good to stop to acknowledge how far we have come in the last 10 years with improving calf health. Take this week to think about all the practices that are now second nature that perhaps you weren’t doing this time five years ago.
We also covered advancements in genetics in both dairy and beef, the use of sexed semen and the marvellous advancements in technology on farm. It's not your average Tuesday on the farm in spring to be recording a radio segment, but it was a great experience overall, and it was nice to tell our story.
