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Calf Rearing Tips - What Should You Do With Sick Calves?

I am sure that all dairy farmers want their cows to be healthy and productive, because unhealthy cows cost money.

By Department of Primary Industries - 28th April 2004 - Back to News

They have higher drug, veterinary and labour costs, and reduced performance, that is lifetime milk yield and number of calves born. Not only do unhealthy cows cost you money through fewer lactations in the herd, their higher culling rates increase the need to rear more replacement heifers.

What then should we do with sick calves? Our inherent nature, particularly those of us who enjoy calf rearing, want us to "mollycoddle" them with all the TLC and drugs we have until they are up and about running with their pen mates. But what then? Should you keep them and grow them out or sell them at the first opportunity?

What do sick calves cost?

How much do sick calves cost? It is relatively easy to record the cash costs of treatment, such as veterinary visits and drugs. It is more difficult to cost out the extra time and care required during treatment and recuperation. For example, US researchers found that each sick calf required, on average, 53 minutes of extra care before recovery occurs. However, it is the long-term effects on heifer health and subsequent performance that are near impossible to quantify. These may be even higher than the costs and labour during treatment.

Overseas studies have consistently found that sick calves have poorer performance as adult cows. For example, in Canada, heifer calves that were treated for scours were two to three times more likely to be sold prior to mating and three times more likely to calve down as 30 month, rather than 24 month old heifers. Furthermore, those that were treated for pneumonia during their first three months of rearing were two to three times more likely to die within this 90 day period.

What proportion of heifers are wasted?

Australian researchers have documented the wastage rates of heifers during rearing and in their first lactation. For example in Tasmania, 53% of the replacement heifers reared from birth were culled before their first lactation. Wastage rates have not been as high in Victoria, where two separate studies found that 30 to 35% losses of heifers up to their second calving. Another study, looking at heifer live weights at mating, found that 23% of the heifers weighing less than 250 kg at mating were either sold or carried over for mating 12 months later. These findings suggest that many Australian dairy farmers fail to achieve the British recommendation of 20% or less heifer wastage from birth to second calving.

So when should you decide whether to sell a calf or not? How sick should she be before you have to decide that she is never likely to be a really profitable member of your milking herd? There is no easy answer to this quandary. I suppose all we can conclude is that the more attention a sick calf requires during treatment, the less likely she will make you money as an adult cow.

Some farmers are adamant that every sick calf is disposed of, either by humane slaughter or sale as a cull. The problem with selling such animals is that, unless the animal goes straight to the abattoirs, the problem of potential poor growth is just passed onto the new purchaser. However one would expect that an astute calf rearer is unlikely to purchase a recovered calf.

Documenting costs and long term losses

How many farmers actually document which calves get sick, the degree of treatment required for their recovery, then their age and reason for culling?

If this became a farm recording routine, farmers could then decide how many lactations such animals are likely to remain in the milking herd. This could eventually provide a valuable benchmark for them to make the decision to cull them as recovered calves or let them join their more healthy heifer calf mates.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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