Knowledgebase
Kingshay's Knowledgebase - Calf Rearing
Biosecurity is a strategic and integrated approach to managing risk to stop the introduction or spread of harmful organisms on farm. Whilst good farm biosecurity is hard ...
Figures suggest that just under 100,000 of the estimated 470,900 black and white bull calves born in the UK in 2011 were killed on site or not registered, due to poor c...
It is estimated that more than 6% of calves die before they reach six months of age, most of these losses occur in the first month of the calves’ life and many are a re...
Kingshay's Youngstock Management Survey showed that 87% of farmers have seen cases of calf pneumonia and 50% joint ill on their farm. Good calf management is crucial if a...
Traditional calf feeding practice limits milk fed to encourage early intakes of concentrates and promote earlier weaning, to cut feed costs and labour. Recent research ho...
Calf milk replacers (CMRs) have been available in the UK since the 1950s. Over the last couple of decades there have been significant changes to formulations, with many o...
Heifer calves are the future of your dairy herd, you don’t get a second chance at getting it right. Therefore, time taken for attention to detail pays dividends not onl...
Computerised calf feeders are becoming increasingly popular to help labour efficiencies. Managed well, they can improve milk feeding consistency, drive weight gains and o...
In a traditional dairy calf rearing system, calves are fed 10% of their birthweight in milk over two feeds daily i.e. 2 feeds of 2 litres. In comparison, a calf left on t...
In response to member queries about calf jackets and their efficacy, we carried out a Tried & Tested survey and trial in early 2015. The survey was completed by a sam...
An increasing number of processors are introducing plans to encourage farmers to phase out calf euthanasia of healthy, young bull calves. Such a move is undoubtedly the r...
Prompt recognition and treatment of disease are essential to reduce pain in cattle and promote cow welfare. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are an importan...