Youngstock [DA.HM.Y]

MMN March 2025 – How Much is Enough When it Comes to Milk Replacer?

Your calf rearing policy should, from birth, ensure that you are giving heifer replacements the best opportunity to express their genetic potential as a productive animal when they enter the…

MMN March 2025 – Turning Out Heifers, Fed not Forgotten

Highly nutritious spring grass can be an effective tool for promoting growth in youngstock and can support growth rates of up to 1kg/day. Turning heifers out to grass can reduce…

MMN March 2025 – Husbandry of Dairy Calves

When rearing calves there is a lot to think about from to the day of birth right through to getting that calf to enter the milking herd. Husbandry is important…

MMN January 2025 – Outwintering Dairy Heifers

Outwintering dairy heifers can make significant savings on bedding and labour and with good planning and nutrition, growth performance should not be compromised. There are a number of things to…

MMN November 2024 – Should You Feed Silage to Weaned Calves?

There is a lot of debate around whether weaned dairy calves can be fed on a grass silage-based ration. Standard industry guidance for years has been to feed weaned calves…

MMN July 2024 – Why Won’t a Calf Suckle?

There are many reasons why some calves struggle to suckle from a teat. One of the main causes is an acidotic calf at birth and this condition is most likely…

Ventilation in Calf Housing through Summer

As the weather warms steps need to be taken to prevent disease outbreaks in calves. Calf sheds should be well-ventilated to ensure cool fresh air is flowing through. Air capacity…

MMN May 2024 – Colostrum Beyond Antibodies: What is New?

Project: Identifying critical control points for colostrum contamination and Mycoplasma bovis prevalence in first milking colostrum from Scottish dairy herds. When colostrum quality is discussed, it is tempting to think…

Providing a Comfortable Thermal Environment for Calves

Despite the various methods for housing calves (e.g. individual, paired, group, pens, hutches) the basic principles for housing should be the same. The environment should be as clean as possible,…

MMN March 2024 – How Long are your Heifers Lasting?

According to the recently published NMR 500 Herd KPI Report for 2023, the medium number of lactations per cow at exit was 3.6 and the culling rate was 28%, with…

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