Advice on minimising dairy calf moves to reduce stress

Every change in environment, social grouping and diet is an upset for a young calf. This impacts  feed intake, which, in turn, affects growth rate.

Anecdotal evidence, from business consultant Andy Dodd of the Farm Consultancy Group, suggests dairy farms are moving their calves and heifers to fill available shed space, or cope with increasing numbers and sizes, without considering the consequences.

See also: 12 tips on rearing heifers to last longer

“Every time animals move, it means a change in group and diet, and it’s a stress. The consequence is that growth rates fall. And if you are not hitting 60% of mature weight for breeding, heifers won’t get in-calf on time to calve down at 24 months,” he points out.

In addition, heifers failing to reach 85% of mature weight at calving can lose litres in their first lactation. This then affects their chances of getting back in-calf and staying in the herd, he adds.

Number of moves

Evidence of youngstock movements became apparent when Andy ran on-farm meetings as part of a campaign that involved regularly weighing replacements.

He remembers one host farm moved its heifer calves a record 16 times before service. This ranged from individual to multiple calf pens, changing fields in summer, and further group changes at winter housing.

But it was evident from attendee discussions that it was not something other farmers had considered.

“It was just how their system worked, and it was a common theme on many units with many sheds or multiple sites.

“On some farms, bulling heifers come in from grazing and are served the next day. There is no time allowed for them to adapt to silage, concentrates or cubicles, then farmers question why first service fertility is poor.

“Heifers need to be inside at least three weeks pre-service to settle into their environment and new diet.”

Ideally, he says, weaned calves would move to settle in one building with gates, divisions, water and feed troughs – and cubicles – adapted as they grew.

But every farm varies in the facilities it has available, so where moving youngstock is unavoidable, Andy suggests minimising stress levels instead.

This means maintaining as much consistency as possible and avoiding tasks such as dehorning and teat removal at the same time.

Wider age range

He advises moving a cohort, not just one or two calves, and operating a wider-range age group (a three to four month spread) to reduce the need to shift buildings.

“Just don’t mix a big range in age groups – from baby calves to pregnant heifers – in one shed. In such cases, look at changing your building design or think about a new shed.”

To help achieve feed consistency, Andy says calves can be given a good-quality rearer pellet from day one, rather than switching from a starter to a rearer pellet.

This saves money (starter feed is more expensive) and is one less change for the calf to deal with.

“They will eat a 5-6mm rearer nut – it soon breaks down in the calf’s mouth – whereas smaller pellets go mushy in the bucket and end up being wasted,” he explains.

Case study: Grove Farm, Mettingham, Suffolk

David Utting © MAG/Shirley Macmillan

Fresh air and fewer moves were the priorities when David Utting set out to design and build a new calf shed for the family’s dairy herd in Mettingham, Suffolk.

Farm labour constructed a shed that is 7m to the open ridge – high enough to allow for machinery storage in summer – and with vented eaves.

Now in its third season, the shed is used to rear 75 heifer replacements until turnout.

“The more airflow, the better – although it’s a trade-off between fresh air and being too cold. If it turns cold, we put Hesston bales in to create walls so that calves can hide behind them. There is also stockboarding on the outside gates to stop draughts,” he says.

Further wind blockers include box profile cladding, and Yorkshire boarding on the gable end.

Maximum calf housing

“With a tighter calving pattern, we have more calves coming all at once so needed more calf housing,” says David.

Calves move into the youngstock rearing facilities by about two weeks of age, having had colostrum and settled onto teat feeding.

“We wanted a building where we could keep little calves over winter until turnout, then clean out the shed and have it dry all summer. We didn’t want to keep moving calves: it’s annoying, extra work and I don’t think it does the calves any good,” he says.

“The key is the first six months, to get healthy calves and healthy heifers to serve. We can’t have ill calves, they don’t move through the system, and it backs up when you have starter pens, middle and weaner pens.

“There is no holdup in this shed. We can also rest the calf housing for four to six months, which is a big thing for disease control.”

The shed was planned beside the farm’s handling facilities and to match the length of the opposite building. This resulted in three bays for 20 calves plus one for 15 calves, on a concrete base.

A drive-by concrete trough was put along the front, together with a scrapeable feed passage. An adjustable neck rail prevents small calves from escaping; as they grow, it can be raised to avoid neck rubs.  

Adaptable accommodation

When calves are first housed, they are penned in the back of the bay and drink from Wyedale feeders hooked over the pen gate. The milk trolley travels along the feed passage.

Once weaned, gates are opened, and calves access the trough; they can be shut in the feed passage to allow for bedding.

Each bay shares a standard water trough filled with UV-treated, filtered borehole water. This sits on a plinth, but it can be lowered to floor level for small calves.

On reflection, David thinks youngstock do not need such big water tanks and says he should have located them at the front of the pens for easier checking and to avoid wetting the bedding.

However, the priority was to be able to move gates to make the yard functional. “If they are all good calves, we eventually mix the 75 together, but if one pen is slightly behind, we leave it as a separate pen.”

Extra hinges have recently been added to raise the gates as calves and bedding muck levels grow. “They were nice and low for small calves, but once the bedding built up, we couldn’t open the gates,” he admits.

David reckons it takes staff half-an-hour at most to bed this shed in winter and 10-15 minutes to feed 75 calves on the teat feeders. He finds group feeding is less stressful for both calves and staff.