Teagasc and Animal Health Ireland - Calf Health and Genetics Webinar
Type Event Proceeding
This webinar which took place on Tuesday, 22 February, was chaired by Nicky Byrne, Teagasc and covered topics such as health and genetics of dairy calf to beef systems.
With an increasing number of calves coming from our dairy herd many of which will end up being reared and finished on beef farms. It is important that we are aware of best practise when sourcing and settling in these young calves on farm to give them the best possible start. Done incorrectly you run the risk of poor calf thrive, higher calf mortality and consequently poor efficiency and financial returns.
Dr Nicky Byrne was joined by Kilkenny beef farmer Peter O Hanrahan who was in the Greenacre Programme. Peter discussed his buying in protocol, how he manages the calves immediately after arriving on farm with particular emphasis on feeding and health management and shared his experience of what he sees as the key drivers in having a successful dairy beef system.
The next speaker Chris Daly from ICBF showed the new Commercial Beef Value (CBV) tool developed by ICBF to help farmers make better purchasing decisions when sourcing calves. If the sire of a calf is known then the CBV will give the potential beef merit of that individual calf based on its carcase traits etc. Although only in its infancy this tool has the potential to drive improved calf quality from the dairy herd if demanded by purchasers of calves.
Following this, Michelle Mc Grath from AHI who is a member of the Calf Care technical working group highlighted how bloat can occur in calves whether they are fed using whole milk or milk powder. She went through how the incidence can be reduced. She also discussed issues around the increasing incidence of Summer Scour Syndrome in calves after turnout on some farms.
Finally, Natascha Meunier, AHI’s Beef Healthcheck Programme Manager gave an outline of legislative changes to how we will be allowed to use anti-parasitic and antibiotics products at farm level.