For those of you rearing calves, hopefully calf sheds have already been cleaned out from last season and disinfected. If this has not happened, it needs to be done ASAP.
With current beef schedules and milk powder and meal prices, calf rearing numbers are likely to increase. As a result peelings, sawdust etc for calf rearing are likely to be in short supply. If you haven’t sourced your supply, once again it needs to be ordered. Ensure what you source is dry or can be spread out and will dry sufficiently by the time the sheds need to used.
If calf scours have been an issue in your operation, rearing calves from cows that have been vaccinated for calf scours can be a great advantage.
For Dairy farmers, this means vaccinating part or all of their herd. For calf rearers talk to your calf suppliers. If you source calves direct from the dairy farm it makes sense to offer a premium for vaccinated calves (or offer to pay
for the vaccine to be used in the herd).
Just remember it is no good vaccinating cows unless the calves receive good levels of the colostrum containing the antibodies against calf scours in the first few hours of life. This does not always happen on today’s dairy farms. Many of the sick calves we attend to have problems directly related to poor colostrum intakes on day one of life.