In early December, Mark and I were invited to join Tom and Josh of Synergy Vets at one of the calf discussion group meetings to discuss compliance in calf rearing, especially with reference to The Red Tractor Standards.  This month I will be looking at points raised at this event and actions to take to ensure you meet compliance rules.

Calf rearing/management:
Husbandry procedures must only be carried out by competent persons; this includes those that are certified to undertake procedures or who are experienced.  A competent person must be able to understand welfare implications of the methods they are using and the conditions of use.  Training is available through your vets, please contact them for more information.

Below shows the requirements for Red Tractor in regards to husbandry management.

Calf housing (both pens/loose housing) must meet requirements to be able to provide safe, comfortable and hygienic environments for those housed.

• Clean, dry and suitable bedding must always be provided.  Slatted areas must not be used.
• It is important that there is adequate ventilation in all housing areas, this will help ensure that they are able to keep healthy during either hot/cold temperatures.
• Adequate and safe lighting should be available for inspecting calves when there is not enough natural light.
• Calves must have enough space to allow them to lie down simultaneously, stretch and move freely; they must also have both visual and tactile contact with other calves, especially when housed in pens.
• Livestock over 8 weeks of ages should be housed in groups of 2 or more where feasible.

Daily diets must be provided to all calves to ensure health and welfare is maintained.  This includes:

• At least two milk feeds a day until 28 days, not weaned before 5 weeks of age nor until they are eating adequate hard feed.
• Manufacturers instructions followed for feed or artificial milk replacers, where used.
• Pre-weaned stock provided with dry, fresh, clean feed and forage daily.
• Feeding equipment must be kept in a clean condition.
• It is recommended that milk under withdrawal periods for antibiotics is not fed to youngstock.
• Water must always be provided unrestricted from birth.  This is a common non-conformance found.

During the calf discussion group meeting we discussed colostrum management and testing.  As per the Red Tractor Recommendations, colostrum from Johnes positive cows should not be fed to either dairy or beef stock.  Colostrum management must be shown in the Livestock Health Plan.

Red Tractor also recommends that colostrum is tested.  We demonstrated using the Brix refractometer and colostrometer at the discussion group that these are easy methods to check the quality of milk.

Thank you for reading and thank you to Synergy for inviting us to their discussion group.  Next month we will be going through general livestock management.

For interpretation of the Red Tractor Regulations and help with getting the required paperwork together for an audit, contact Emily at emilywynder@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office.