Calf Care Virtual Week 2021
Calfcare Virtual Week 2021 took place from January 18th to 21st. Proceeding from the week can be viewed below.
AHI and Teagasc ran their annual series of CalfCare events throughout the week of 18 January. This time they were ran virtually and covered a wider range of topics relating to calf health. The material comprised of a combination of webinars, videos, podcasts. See below for details.
Calf Housing and Preparing for the Calving Season
On Monday 18 January, a live interactive webinar took place in association with Animal Health Ireland where the focus was on calf housing and preparing for the calving season. Questions from attendees were answered by a panel of speakers from AHI and Teagasc experienced in the area of calf health.
Calving is a stressful time for both the farmer and the animal. To try reduce this stress and ensure a successful calving period we must be prepared. Watch this short clip to ensure you are prepared for this calving season.
In this short clip, Gordon Peppard runs through what you should have in a good calf housing facility such as a clean dry, draught free well ventilated house with access to milk replacer, concentrate feeding, straw and water
1,2,3 of Colostrum Management, Colostrum Quality & Johnes Disease
Calves are born without antibodies. They depend on the absorption of antibodies from colostrum which protects the calf until their own immunity at 3 to 4 weeks of age. The correct amount of high quality colostrum is vital for healthy calves.
The quality of colostrum refers to the quantity of antibodies that colostrum contains. The more antibodies the colostrum the contains, the higher the quality. What are these antibodies? Muireann Conneely, Teagasc runs through the process of testing and accessing colostrum quality in this short clip.
Johne's disease is a bacterial disease of cattle and other ruminants for which there is no cure. Watch this short clip to find out how best to minimise the risk of Johne's disease at calving.
On this episode of The Dairy Edge, Michelle McGrath from Animal Health Ireland explained how calves are born with no immunity and rely on colostrum to protect them against disease in the first weeks of life until they establish their own immunity.
Vaccination of the Pregnant Cow and Common Diseases of the Young Calf
On Wednesday 20 January, a live interactive webinar took place with Teagasc and AHI where the focus was on the vaccination of the pregnant cow, common diseases of the young calf and treating scour
Calves are born without any protective immunity and only receive protection once they absorb antibodies from colostrum. In this short clip, find out about the importance of calves receiving adequate colostrum intake as soon after birth as possible and how the quality of colostrum can be improved
Calf health and heifer rearing is an important part of any production system and having to treat sick calves is stressful. Find out more in this short clip with Catherine McAloon, UCD
Careful treatment of the scouring calf is vital to ensure a rapid recovery. The 3 principles which are Remove, Rehydrate and Continue to feed milk is vital to ensure a rapid recovery.
On this week’s The Beef Edge, Emer Kennedy highlights the importance of following the correct guideline for making up the milk replacer & Joe Patton outlines how important it is to introduce calves to concentrates in the first week.
Guidelines for Calf Feeding
Ensuring calves are well fed during the milk feeding period is essential for good health and weight gain. During the first weeks of life, the calf is entirely dependent on milk as a source of nutrition.
When managing the nutrition of young calves on milk, its very important to remember that we must develop the rumen aswell as grow the calf. If the digestive system is not ready for forage the calf will suffer setbacks.