Farmers' seminar hears about calves, young stock management

At the ‘Your Youngstock; Your future’ seminar hosted recently in the Killyhevlin Hotel by United Feeds and Farm Vet Services, United Feeds’ nutritionist, Matt Bourne, highlighted the importance of achieving first calving by 24 months.

Mr. Bourne explained: “The cost of a heifer missing the 24-month target is about £2.87 per day, which is £115 per heifer if missed by 40 days.

To achieve 24-month calving, the heifer should be 55 to 60 per cent of their mature bodyweight at 13 to 15 months.

To reach this weight for a 650kg mature weight cow, calves need to have an average daily liveweight gain of 0.8kg from birth up until 13 months.

Attending the United Feed/Farm Vet Services meeting in The Killyhevlin Hotel are Richard Coalter, Amanda Smyth, James Murphy and Trevor Dunn. Photos by John McVitty.

Mr. Bourne also highlighted the importance of colostrum.

“Colostrum provides the calf with immunity, energy, valuable proteins, and bacteria which stabilise gut flora. Following ‘The Five Qs of Colostrum’ can have a major benefit for the rest of the calf’s life.

“The calf should receive 10 per cent of their bodyweight in colostrum in the first six hours of life.

“It’s important to only use colostrum from non-Johnes infected cows with over 50mg/ml of Immunoglobulins which can be checked using a brix refractometer.

“Any colostrum not being used immediately should be stored in sterilised containers in a fridge for a maximum of 48 hours, or frozen for a maximum of six months.

“Anyone on the farm who works with calves should be keeping a record of how much colostrum each calf has received, and when.”

Mr. Bourne explained: “Grass can be a cheap source of protein and energy in the post-weaning diet; however, the optimal target for grass utilisation is intakes of 2.4 per cent of bodyweight, and post-weaning the rumen is not yet fully developed.

“So, supplementing with concentrates during the first summer at grass is essential.

“United Feed’s grower rations are perfectly suited to calves at grass. To learn more, speak to your local United Feed’s Ruminant Nutrition Adviser.”

Matt Bourne, United Feeds; Patrick Finnegan, Farm Vet Services; Stephen Hazelton, Farm Vet Services and Clive Morrison, United Feeds, during the meeting in The Killyhevlin Hotel.

Monitoring the grass growth is just as important as monitoring heifer growth.

You should be entering grass between the second and third leaf stage at a cover between 2,500 – 3,000kg DM/ha, and grazing down to 2,000kg DM/ha in younger calves, or 1,600kg DM/ha in older calves.

In wet and cool conditions, increase the level of concentrates to account for reduced grass intakes.

The nutritionist highlighted the benefits of rotational grazing. “A study by AFBI found rotationally-grazed heifers gained an extra 0.04-0.16kg/day compared to continuously grazed heifers, which could be the difference in achieving bulling weights by more than a month earlier.

“Young calves should be moved to fresh grass regularly – they will struggle to graze out fields if rotation length is longer than 3 – 4 days.”

Patrick Finnegan, from Farm Vet Services, also highlighted the benefits of rotational grazing.

“Lungworms are the most clinically significant parasites in cattle. Their eggs are passed in faeces and develop before escaping onto pasture, before being ingested and developing as it spreads to the lungs, and then producing eggs to repeat the process.

“Using a rotational grazing with a leader-follower system can reduce the burden on youngstock.

“Vaccinating and worming before turnout, particularly in their first grazing season, will prevent pasture burden getting too high.

“In the second grazing season, heifers should have some immunity from the previous year.”

Attending The United Feed/Farm Vet Services Meeting in The Killyhevlin Hotel.

Mr. Finnegan advised farmers to speak to their local Farm Vet Services practice about wormers as it is important to not over-worm youngstock.

He continued: “The risk of lungworm infection is particularly high when a warm, dry period is followed by rain, as lungworm can develop faster in warm weather, and is then dispersed from the dung by the rain.

“If heifers are coughing, move them to clean pasture, and consult your vet.”

Mr. Finnegan’s colleague, Stephen Hazelton, spoke about the importance of fly control.

“Risk of summer mastitis caused by flies can be negated in several ways, but heifer teat sealing has been found to reduce clinical cases by 68 per cent.

“This should be done around four weeks pre-calving or earlier, especially if going out to grass.”

Mr. Hazelton also highlighted the importance of minerals when at grass.

“Minerals are vital for growth and development of healthy heifers as well as benefitting conception rates.

“Normally, heifers would be getting minerals through concentrates; however, if they aren’t getting any concentrate, they need to be getting mineral supplementation through other means such as a bolus, lick, drench or injection.”

The veterinarian continued: “Poor mineral status, nutritional stress, disease and bad weather can all lower herd immunity and increase risk of disease in the herd.

“Vaccinations can increase herd immunity to particular diseases, but won’t be as effective if the challenge is too high.

“It’s important to rectify challenges and stresses to the animal, and discuss with your vet tailoring a vaccine programme to your farm.”