Dairy in Scotland
Composing at the Lion and Unicorn Inn located in Thornhill near Sterling. A full UK breakfast is in the offing and fire is buring just behind me taking the chill off the breakfast room.
This blog entry comes from Scotland. At two meetings on
Monday, March 11, about 60 dairy farmers discussed with me management of
preweaned calves. The primary concerns expressed were about keeping calves
healthy (avoiding treatments for scours and pneumonia) and getting them to grow
well. Very few folks had problems with calves dying, rather they wanted them to
do better.
At the end of our sessions the facilitators asked the
farmers to name one or two practices that they might consider changing as
result of our conversations. At the first mid-day session the most frequently
named practice changes were (1)not leaving the calf with the dam as long (many
folks left calves with the dam for 10-12 hours, some for a full day) and (2)not
feeding colostrum to calves that had been sitting around warm for a half day or
more.
At the evening session the most frequently named practice
changes were (1)feeding colostrum to calves sooner (rather than waiting 6-8
hours), (2)chilling colostrum if it was not going to be fed within 30 minutes
after it was collected, and (3)cleaning feeding equipment after each use rather
than once a day.
Some of the farms had automatic computer milk feeders. I was
surprised to learn that uniformly they were feeding a maximum of 6 litres a day
with them. This was a topic of considerable discussion since my experience
elsewhere is feeding up to 10 and 12 litres daily.
What great fun hearing about calf management practices in
Scotland.
That and Haggis for supper last night!
Cheers. Fiona just showed up with breakfast.
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