Every farmer knows how important it is to give newborn calves the best start possible, and for the DeCicco family from Benevento Holsteins at Undera, this begins before a calf even hits the ground.
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Fred, Sonyia and son Daniel have got their management down pat these days, but that wasn’t always the case.
It wasn’t until they started to prioritise colostrum management that they noticed a big change in the health of all of their calves.
“About five years ago, we started to follow advice from our nutritionist Ellen Fitzgibbon, which included the purchase of brix monitor to measure the amount of colostrum in the milk — anything above 22 we freeze and keep,” Daniel said.
“In the old days, we just used to say if the milk was a gold colour it was good, and 90 per cent of the time that’s probably true, but over the years we have learnt it certainly pays to check with the brix monitor.”
Newborn calves are fed two litres of colostrum within their first hour of birth.
This is followed by another two litre feed and then three litres over the next 12 hours.
“It is a bit of work at the start, but it is certainly worth it down the track,” Daniel said.
Pregnant cows are calved undercover in a shed, where they are monitored 24 hours a day by a camera installed in the roof.
This enables Daniel and Fred to feed calves within an hour of being born.
The benefits of the camera are two-fold — whoever is on calf duty doesn’t physically have to get out of bed at night to check a calving cow, and if there isn’t any action, they can just roll over and go back to sleep.
Looking after the dry cows well and ensuring they have access to shade, water and quality feed including lead feed before calving is a crucial starting point, and also contributes to the quality of colostrum a cow produces.
Both Fred and Daniel look after the newborn calves together, but after a couple of days, Daniel takes over.
Initially, the calves are kept in small group where they get used to feeding from a bottle — where they are fed three litres twice a day.
They then move across to the milk feeder, where they are fed seven to eight litres a day.
Once they are feeding well, they then transition across to a bigger group of 12-16 animals.
They have access to fresh water, pellets and hay from day one.
“I keep an eye on the calves and their manure because that tells me what and how well they are eating,” Daniel said.
“We aim to wean our calves at about three months of age.”
Daniel said around 18 months ago he introduced scour shield, and that has made a huge difference to the health of his animals.
“I don’t think I have had a calf with scours since.”
The other game changer for the family was the building of a purpose-built calf shed about four years ago.
The 50m x 30m shed has sliding doors which open at each end to help with ventilation.
The shed has been built to take advantage of the sun, and on cold frosty mornings, the calves remain nice and snug, while in summer, the ventilation helps keeps them cool.
The calves are bedded on saw dust, which is removed after each season when the pens are cleaned out.
“We haven’t had any issues with the sawdust, but we do keep our stocking rates low, so they last well.”
When the calves are weaned they move to a sheltered outside paddock, lined with trees for shade, where they continue to access hay and pellets.
Both Fred and Daniel agree the first couple of days for each calf are pretty hectic, but putting the effort in early has meant they very rarely, if ever, get a sick calf.
“Our growth rates have been amazing and we are now calving heifers in around 550kg — when you look out across the milking herd it’s hard to pick out the heifers because they are so well grown,” Fred said.
“It gives us all a great sense of achievement.”