Dairy Calf Health and Welfare

Why is this research important?

Since 2010, the number of dairy cows in Ireland has increased by approximately 50%. These additional cows increase the number of dairy origin calves born, and more particularly, the number of non-replacement calves entering the beef industry. The health and welfare of calves born on dairy farms, including calves that remain on their farm of origin, move to beef farms or travel to other EU member states is vitally important for the Irish dairy and beef sectors. Several initiatives are being implemented to improve calf health and welfare.

The Economic Breeding Index is used by dairy farmers to select bulls to generate replacement heifers to improve herd genetic merit. Replacement heifers typically account for approximately 25% of the calves born on a dairy farm, and the remaining 75% of calves are destined for beef production. The first initiative is to grow the use of dairy sexed semen, targeting the best genetic merit dams as parents of the next generation, and consequently, all remaining dams are available for beef-on-dairy mating. This means that more beef semen will be used on dairy farms, using high genetic merit bulls selected from the Dairy Beef Index. This will provide long-term sustainability for the Irish dairy industry. For calves that are exported to continental Europe, maintaining calf welfare throughout the journey is crucial to the integrity of the calf transport process. This requires both robust monitoring and development of solutions to improve welfare during transport.

Cattle management systems are continuously evolving and improving. Rearing practices for calves, whether reared on the dairy farm or on a dairy calf-to-beef farm, need to be standardised to ensure excellent health and welfare, and thereby underpin the sustainability of our dairy and beef systems.

What the research tells us

Sexed semen

In November 2021, Sexing Technologies established a sexing laboratory at Teagasc Moorepark, with the primary objective of stimulating greater availability of sex-sorted semen from more high EBI bulls. The sex-sorting service was available to all AI companies operating in Ireland. For the 2022 breeding season, the lab at Moorepark produced 85,000 straws during a 5-month period. For the 2023 breeding season, Sexing Technologies started sorting at Moorepark in September 2022, and opened a second sexing laboratory at the National Cattle Breeding Centre (NCBC) in November 2022. The combined output of the two labs for the 2023 breeding season was approximately 230,000 straws. Research work is continuing in this area to identify optimal practices for sexed-semen usage in dairy heifers and cows.

Dairy calf to beef

Due to the expansion of the national dairy herd, the number of dairy-beef animals has increased in recent years, and now accounts for 63% of the cattle processed in Irish meat plants. Concurrently, there has been a decrease in carcass conformation score in the progeny from dairy dams bred using both beef and dairy sires. However, improved reproductive efficiency, greater usage of dairy sexed semen and reduced heifer replacement rates will facilitate greater use of high genetic merit beef sires, increasing the proportion of high genetic merit beef-cross calves originating from the dairy herd.

Generating offspring with superior dairy-beef genetics, coupled with good management practices at farm level, can simultaneously increase profitability and reduce the environmental impact of grass-based dairy-beef systems. Research is now focusing on a trilogy of tools for the breeding, mating and trading of dairy-beef animals:

an index to select the most suitable beef bulls for breeding to dairy females (Dairy Beef Index);
a web-based service to recommend optimal individual male-female mating; a
an index to forecast the likely eventual profit from a calf destined for beef production (commercial beef value; CBV).

The Commercial Beef Value (CBV) will aid the buying and selling of cattle that are destined for slaughter. The tool allows farmers to easily identify more profitable animals, irrespective of colour or breed, at the time of sale. This information allows the buyer and seller to have a better understanding of the lifetime value of the animals on sale.

Calf transport

Every year, over 200,000 unweaned calves are exported to continental Europe for veal and beef production between the ages of two and six weeks. These long-distance journeys via road and ferry typically take more than 48 hours in total. During transit, calves undergo a period of extended fasting. Livestock transport, especially of young animals, is a topic of growing concern to farmers and the general public due to the challenges it presents to animal welfare.

Adverse effects on calf welfare can include hunger, dehydration, social stress, discomfort, injury and infection, handling and mixing with other animals, and exposure to novel pathogens. Research work is currently being undertaken to improve the welfare of unweaned dairy calves undergoing long-distance transportation by road/ferry within Europe. Feeding strategies and stocking densities during transit are being investigated to help improve the health and welfare of these calves.

Calf management

Defining calf rearing management practices that ensure healthy, well-grown calves is essential to underpin the sustainability of dairy production systems. Current calf-rearing research projects are focusing on colostrum management and rearing practices to promote health and welfare during both the pre- and post-weaning period. This includes producing high quality colostrum and refining methodologies around best practice when calves are born. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing issue internationally, and research is also ongoing to examine opportunities to reduce antimicrobial usage, including strategic use of vaccines.

Outputs

Links to papers

More information

Contacts

Sexed semen: Stephen Butler (stephen.butler@teagasc.ie)
Dairy calf to beef: Nicky Byrne (nicky.byrne@teagasc.ie)
Calf transport: Muireann Conneely (muireann.conneely@teagasc.ie)
Calf management: Emer Kennedy (emer.kennedy@teagasc.ie)