Calving ease
Provided by New Zealand Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today, magazine August 2010 issue.
They like routine and being burped, grizzle when they have a tummy ache and love to put everything into their mouths. Rearing calves is a lot like rearing children as one lifestyle block couple have discovered.
The staff at the local hardware store know Errol Brown well. He's the one who needs to buy a new electric drill every few months because he has burnt out the old one far more quickly than your average handyman.
The drills turns a paint-stirring attachment that mixes up the bulk batches of milk powder and water that feed a herd of hungry calves.
"My wife tells me I haven't got the patience for animals," says Errol, a former senior police officer. "But doing this is an absolute antidote to being stuck in an office for so long."
This year the Browns aim to welcome 100 four-day old calves to their farm, most from a local farmer whose calves they raise on contract, and a few of their own. From being absolutele beginners four years ago, it has taken lots of careful planning, training and sheer hard work to become successful calf-rearers.
"I hadn't looked at calves for nearly 50 years," says Errol. "But we knew we wanted to come to a small rural property, having lived cheek to jowl with neighbours all our married life. We wanted the open spaces of a lifestyle block, but we also wanted an income."
"We'd never done it before, we knew very little about calf rearing," says Diane. "In fact I don't even think I'd given it a thought before, apart from knowing that people raise calves!"
Their block is in a small rural community on the outskirts of Levin, six hectares that includes a farm stay, so they're busy all the time says Diane. "This is a working farm, not the peacock-and-spa-pool type. We have lots of French, European, and Scandinavian visitors and everyone comes down to have a look and help feed the calves. A lot of them have never been on a farm, let alone had a look at something like this."
Going under contract
The Browns' livestock collection began with a few sheep, some Galloways and Highland cattle, then a few four day old calves.
"We were sheep people, we do have some good Suffolks, but we liked the idea of calves and we thought ourselves extremely busy looking after those four calves," says Diane with a smile. "But I asked a local farmer if we could raise some of his calves, and he said yes. So we do this under contract for him, he gives us the calves at four days old, gives us all the feed, we take them right through - he likes them at about 100kg, but the last lot we raised, they did so well he took them away at 70kg."
The Browns like the contract system as it removes all risk from the calf rearer, although the downside is they don't make quite as much money (nor run the risk of losing money) as they would if they were doing it for themselves.
"If you've got a reasonable contract (as I believe we have) it's not that bad," says Errol. "Our farmer supplies all inputs and they're charged direct to him. It's restricted to things like calf milk powder, pellets and hay. Everything else they get we pay for, although if I have to get the vet out they're happy to reimburse that."
Training days
The most calves the Browns have raised at once is 40 at a time, so the step up to 100 this spring is going to be a test of the management systems they have carefully honed over the years.
"We were given an awful lot of information on calves when we started," says Diane. "We went on a course run by Telford Polytechnic on animal management and I would advise anyone who has the time to do it. It was mainly on managing animals, how to get them from one paddock to another, when not to get into a paddock with a bull, but it gave us a really good insight into animal behaviour."
The most important thing for the Browns when they started out was to get the basics right, so Diane says they were disappointed in their first year to discover that even when they did get everything right, things still went wrong.
"The first two weeks are quite critical because they're going from their mother's milk to powdered milk and are building resistance to the inevitable bugs you get in small confined areas. In the first year we had a problem with the powdered milk… and we found out the instructions were printed wrongly on the bag, it took a couple of weeks to find out. That was a bit of a set-back, you think you've followed the instructions, you do everything right and your calves still get the 'squirts'."
Feeding the calves is now a precise drill. The routine begins at 8am when Diane and Errol head down to the mixing room, about 100m from the barn where the calves are kept overnight. It's currently the closest place to the barn that has hot water, and so multiple trips carrying buckets back and forth are required to get all the calves fed. Errol has perfected mixing up milk powder and very hot water as a concentrate using the drill and paint paddle attachment. The milk is then watered down to the correct ratio once he gets it to the barn, to cut down on the number of trips carrying heavy buckets. Eliminating this step by installing a hot water cylinder and a "calf kitchen" in the barn is one project he will complete before spring.
"If you're building a shed get power put in, and make certain you can put in a hot water cylinder close to the point of milk service. We have hot water nearby, and while walking is good for the figure, more thinking is required."
The Brown Family touch
Cider vinegar is added to the milk (2ml per calf per day) for its health qualities before the Browns tip it into special compartmentalised feeders, so each calf gets the same amount of milk. That's different to other calf rearers says Errol.
"Some farmers would tell you they wouldn't have them under any circumstances because hungry calves finish then push the next one aside, while on a common feeder they all finish at the same time. I agree with them, but the quick drinker gets more out of it so if you've got one that's bossy you isolate him with the rest of the bossy ones so the fast feeders are all together. There are definitely slower feeders and you have to make sure they are getting their share too." Over the past four years the Browns have learned how to observe the moods and behaviour of calves so they can now quickly work out which one is a slow drinker, which one is fast, and which one may be "under the weather".
Colour coded collars are used to indicate who is on health watch (red), who is coming off the watch list (green) and who is a slow drinker (yellow). Slow drinkers are then grouped in one pen so they don't miss out, while any possibly sick calves go into the hospital pen.
"Our vet told us to have a hospital ward so we put it at the back of the shed," says Errol. "(Then) we had to move it, it should have been at the front, so we weren't walking bugs backwards and forwards past the other (healthy) calves."
Once feeding is over the calves are allowed out of their pens and into paddocks specially set aside for them, while Errol and Diane clean out the pens, replenish hay and fill feeders with moosli and pellets. By the time they're finished for the morning it's 10am, and there's just a few hours before the same routine begins again in the late afternoon, for a total of about six hours work a day. A lot of their time is spent cleaning every bucket or container that the calves touch and cleaning out the pens. "You can't take shortcuts," says Diane. "We spray the sheds with a disinfectant on a regular basis, and we're really careful with all the feeding equipment. We wash them twice a day. We might make a bit of work for ourselves but we're determined we'renot going to have problems."
Another way to shorten the time spent caring for the calves is by feeding cold milk, and Diane says while they have considered it, they decided against it. The course tutor at the Telford training course (NZQA approved) did discuss it but was not generally in favour.
"Paul Muir (a calf-raising specialist from Ngahiwi Farms in the Hawke's Bay) did tell us that at one of his talks, and I can see why you'd do it but the calves don't like cold milk so we've never done it, and that's a cost (to us). Besides, have you ever tried to get calves to like cold milk?"
While the Browns insist they want to make a profit from their block, it doesn't stop them lavishing love and attention on their little herd. Calves are kept in at night so they don't get cold, and during winter they may not be let out until midday if Diane thinks it's too chilly. They also get a special home-grown addition to their diet.
"We often have a surplus of eggs, so they get eggs as well, they all seem to have nice shiny coats. We try to give them the best we can, they're a bit spoilt which is probably not a good thing. This is meant to be a business, but we've got the time."
Having healthy calves that grow well is the most important goal for the Browns, and their job satisfaction goes beyond ringing the farmer to tell him that his calves are ready for life on the farm.
"There's nothing better than getting past the two weeks mark and there's nothing squirting out the other end," says Diane. "And there's nothing better than seeing them running into the sheds, or running out to play. There's a lot of satisfaction seeing that."
"This is the joy of it all," says Errol. "You see them all sitting down happy and contented, the sun is shining. I can walk up to our calves and rub them under the chin. Isn't it nice when it all comes together!"
An investment tip
Cheap is not always best when it comes to calf-rearing, and following a tip from calf-raising specialist Dr Paul Muir at a seminar they attended, the Browns now choose to use a slightly more expensive, higher protein pellet (20%) as calves have a high requirement for protein.
"They're all pretty good because these days companies can't afford to manufacture stuff that's not quality," says Errol. "But pellets, you can get them with 16% protein and 20% protein and if you're wanting protein why not go higher? It's only $1 a bag more and it's the way to put weight on quickest."
Why calves are just like babies
1. Calves thrive on routine
Babies, calves and their respective digestive systems do best when there is a good routine. Break with routine, and you'll know all about it says Diane.
"When we first started we went out for dinner one night and we decided to miss one feeding. We just thought they'd eat some hay but we could hear them calling from the house!"
Errol agrees the routine is an important key to healthy calves.
"They love a routine, you just need to watch them at feeding time. They tend to even go to the same teat on each occasion."
2. Don't hurry the routine
When you're being paid for your time it's easy to think you can move things along to suit you, but children don't work like that, says Diane, and neither do calves.
"Don't hurry your calves. You'll see they soon start walking in and finding their spot.
"Ours are good wee calves. As soon as they hear me rattle the gates, they're there."
3. They get sick just like babies
Even the ailments are the same says Errol, be it colic or diarrhoea, and often for the same reasons.
"Some calves are just slow drinkers, or they get a belly ache and go off their food. Diane uses the old-fashioned tummy rub and stand-over tactics, just like a baby with colic. Every Mum knows how to make a baby burp, and it's the same with calves. Just a little TLC can go a long way towards keepingcostsdown."
4. They put everything in their mouths
Calves like to taste-test, suck and swallow anything they can find. The most common way for a calf to get into trouble is for string from sacking or twine to be found and sucked on by a curious calf, so it should never be left lying around says Errol.
5. Don't make sudden changes to a calf's diet
Most milk powders are pretty similar as far as he can tell says Errol, but he believes it's important to stick with the brand you start with, and to follow their mixing instructions.
"I suspect a manufacturer knows more about mixing up their milk powder than me," says Errol. "I got a good set of scales for weighing the milk powder so I can get the quantities exact.
"That said, we saw (calf-raising specialist) Dr Paul Muir at a seminar he ran in Feilding and he says that a 10% additional ratio (over and above the instructions) is quite acceptable.
A calf can handle a mix that is up to 10% stronger than normal, but no more."
If you are forced to make a change in milk powder then do it slowly over several days by mixing in the new powder with the old.
This article was provided by NZ Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today, magazine.
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