Improving the growth of calves from 0 to 3 months
Calves, from birth until three months old, develop their mammary parenchyma. That is why it is essential to promote their growth to ensure an Average Daily Gain (ADG) of 900 to 1000 grams per day. To achieve this, attention must be paid to housing and feeding, but also to hygiene, stress, and social relationships so that they feed optimally.
Monitoring calf growth
The growth objective for calves from 0 to 3 months is 900 to 1000 g ADG.
This growth can be monitored by:
- Barymetry: measuring the calf around the chest is possible but unreliable. Measurements can vary depending on who performed them and the calf's morphology. However, a chest circumference of 100 to 105 cm at weaning is targeted.
- Weighing: much more reliable, weighing allows direct determination of the ADG.
Facilities adapted to the animals' age
Before setting up a nursery
First of all, consider the following points:
- Is the space properly sized and adapted?
- Does the space meet the required air volume per calf?
- Is the animals' comfort temperature appropriate?
- Is the bedding surface sufficient?
- Also pay attention to your working conditions. Will the nursery layout allow you to intervene simply and quickly? Will hygiene and cleaning be facilitated?
Your nursery must evolve alongside the growth of your animals. For this, consider the two main phases: 0-2 months and 2-3 months.
From 0 to 2 months
From 0 to 2 months, either group housing or individual housing can be chosen.
Group housing
Group housing is the setup that requires the least labor. With well-sized pens according to the number of heifers raised per year, group housing allows batch work and optimizes labor. It notably enables batch management.
However, if you opt for group housing, be vigilant regarding the required air volume because too often, it is not suitable for young calves:
- For the first three weeks, it is recommended to have a space offering between 8 and 12 m3 of air per calf.
- From 3 weeks to 2 months, plan for 12 to 16 m3 of air per calf.
Very often, animals are in the same building. In this case, installing false ceilings for pens housing 0-3 week-old calves is a good alternative to reduce air volume and thus keep calves warm.
The ideal comfort temperature for animals is between 5 and 25 °C. In nurseries without large volume, heat lamps are sometimes recommended to raise the temperature by a few degrees. Below these temperatures, calves risk hypothermia. Above, they risk hyperventilation and loss of appetite.
Individual housing
Individual housing is the system that ensures maximum hygiene guarantee. The sanitary aspect is easier to maintain because cleaning is simplified after each calf's use. However, individual pens require more handling work than group housing.
In the form of hutches, individual pens can be placed inside or outside a building. If you choose installation of outdoor hutches, make sure to orient them towards the East for maximum comfort.
From 2 to 3 months: group pens
Straw-bedded group pens
Straw-bedded group pens are best suited to the rapid growth of animals at this stage. In addition to providing maximum comfort, they perfectly adapt to the calves' regular growth changes.
Cubicle housing
Cubicles are less comfortable, mainly due to sometimes neglected bedding. Cubicles have the advantage of accommodating animals with age differences without increased competition risk. Note that financial investment in cubicles remains higher than in straw-bedded areas.
Adjustments will need to be made according to the animals' ages and sizes. This may impact the building's capacity.
Outdoor hutches
If you opt for outdoor hutches, you will need to set up a yard to provide sufficient living space and allow the heifer to exercise. The hutches must also be equipped with drinkers, concentrate dispensers, and a hay rack.
Feeding adapted to housing
During the milk-feeding period, the distribution method depends on the chosen housing.
In individual housing
The nipple bucket, particularly suited to individual pens, allows the calf to properly assimilate milk by regulating the drinking flow. Plan to install a concentrate dispenser and a water point. Bucket feeding requires less work initially. Be sure to clean buckets after each feeding to minimize health risks.
In group housing
Several options are possible. As with individual housing, the nipple bucket is an option. The Automatic Milk Dispenser (AMD) is also an option. It is less time-consuming but requires monitoring. It has the advantage of distributing reconstituted milk in a consistently homogeneous way. The AMD for whole milk requires a reservoir adapted to the number of calves to be fed.
Feeding
Colostrum
At birth, within the first six hours of the calf's life, it is imperative to give as much colostrum as possible so it builds its passive immunity. This will help it face diarrhea and other diseases.
About 10% of the calf's weight in colostrum should be given. The quality of colostrum should be considered, for example by measuring it with a refractometer. Ideally, keep colostrum with more than 23 brix frozen to give to the calf if the mother's is insufficient.
Before weaning
Two options are possible to feed the calf before weaning:
- Whole milk: good for temperature, but whole milk values are unstable and it can be difficult for the calf to digest. It may especially have difficulties caused by fat content which can cause diarrhea.
- Reconstituted milk: stable values, easier for the calf to digest. Two types are possible:
- Milk powder: stable, comfortable to manage.
- Whey (lactoserum): less protein than milk powder. Therefore, whey intake must be supplemented with solid concentrates. Whey is however a solution to avoid diarrhea. It is necessary to be rigorous when setting up a feeding plan with it.
It is very important to provide dry feed (corn grain, commercial feed) in the calf's ration from 8-10 days, starting with a handful and gradually increasing. Water must obviously be available in quality and quantity sufficient.
After weaning
After weaning, again, two options:
- Dry ration: commercial concentrates, cereals produced on the farm, or mix with forage (hay, straw).
- Forage ration: corn silage in very small quantities. The calf's ingestion capacity is very low, so it is preferable to support with a concentrate feed such as VL 2.5 L.
Having a corn base in commercial feed is very important because it reduces the risk of acidosis. Mineral quantities are also increased since milk is already very rich before weaning. Finally, green clay can be added to the ration as a gastric soothing agent in case of digestive tract inflammation in the calf.
Grazing
Grazing for calves from 0 to 3 months is possible but not often recommended because these techniques are not yet mastered.
Health and hygiene
"No more than one stress per day"
Several points must be respected to limit stress and thus maximize the calf's ingestion capacity:
- Avoid housing stress, keep the calf in individual pens as long as possible.
- Avoid performing weaning and dehorning at the same time. It is best to remove the calf beforehand to the place where dehorning will be done.
- In general, organize so that the calf does not undergo two changes at once.
Social relationships
The calf is meant to live in groups. That is why it is essential that it develops relationships with its peers and also with the farmer from a young age. It will thus learn to live in a herd.
Hygiene
From birth, it is essential to carefully consider calf hygiene to reduce young mortality rates. Thus, the calving pen must be very clean, i.e., emptied after each calving. If animals are outside, the pasture area is perfectly suitable. The navel must also be disinfected as soon as the calf is born because pathogens can enter through the umbilical cord.
For feeding management, either clean and disinfect buckets after each feeding, or with individual hutches, assign one bucket per calf, which will keep its own microbes without transmitting them to others.
Finally, always monitor bedding and clean regularly.
