Watch: Calf Health and Welfare
Marie and Anna are working on calf health research at Moorepark. Gathering this research data involves recording the calves’ health status on a daily basis along with more in-depth twice weekly health scoring.
Calves are also weighed every two weeks and average daily gains calculated. In addition to these measurements blood, faecal, and environmental samples are taken. These samples are used to examine immune cell activity, parasite burdens, and to determine the calves’ microbiomes (community of microorganisms in their digestive tracts). The aim being to build a detailed profile of the trial calves’ development for the duration of an experiment.
In spring 2023, 72 calves were assigned to a study looking at the effect of colostrum quality on calf health, weight gain and microbiome development. Calves were fed colostrum which was 22% on the Brix refractometer and were compared to calves fed higher quality colostrum which measured 26% on the Brix refractometer. As sexed semen was used on the Moorepark farm all of the heifer calves were born within a three-week period from mid-January. All calves were weaned at 10-weeks old and are now grazing either grass clover or multi species swards. Some of these calves will be on display in the One Health, One Welfare Village at the Teagasc Moorepark Open Day on July 4th. The calves will be part of a demonstration explaining how to ensure calves attain target weight e.g. 30% of mature bodyweight at six months of age.
View this post on Instagram
Come to the Moorepark Open Day on July 4th to learn more at the One Health One Welfare Village.
Follow MooreparkOpenDay23 on Instagram for more updates! #Moorepark23