Premium Plus Suckled Calves

Reducing Stress

The Premium Plus Suckled Calf Scheme is a production system designed to reduce stress in calves at weaning and sale and thereby reduce disease incidence and improve calf performance.

Stressed calves:

Grow very slowly or may lose liveweight.
Are more prone to disease, in particular, pneumonia.
Are costly to cure.
Are not favoured by a growing number of finishers.

The suckled calf is most under stress around weaning and at sale.

Premium Plus Suckled Calf Scheme

Calves sold under the Premium Plus Suckled Calf Scheme provide buyers with a guarantee that they have been managed so that stress, disease and setback is minimised at sale time.

Premium Plus Suckled Calves must be:

Fed meal four - six weeks before sale.
Vaccinated against RSV pneumonia starting four - six weeks before sale.
Pre-booked seven - ten days in advance of the sale.
Sold in matched pairs or batches where possible.
Certified by the producer, supported by receipt for vaccine.

Weanling producers joining the Scheme are encouraged to:

Dehorn, and if not leaving entire, castrate calves at least six weeks before sale.
Join the Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assurance Scheme.

Creep Feeding

Benefits of creep feeding:

Improved calf performance pre-weaning - for every 4kg of meal eaten, a calf can gain an extra 1kg liveweight when grass is scarce.
Financial benefit - if meal is costed at £150 per tonne, an outlay of 60p will buy 4kg of meal, producing an extra 1kg of calf liveweight for sale.
Lower dependence on milk - the calf becomes semi-weaned.
Weakening the bond between cow and calf.
Improved performance post-weaning.

Introducing creep feeding:

Select two adjacent fields or fence off part of a field with electric fencing.
Install creep gate or prop open a field gate using round posts spaced 0.48cm (19 inches) apart with a cross member 0.91cm (3 feet) from the ground.
Place trough in field with best grass.
Feed cows (hay) near the creep gate.
Move the calves along with a couple of older/thinner cows into the creep area.
Provide plenty of trough space.

Vaccination before weaning/sale

Weaning just before sale, combined with a long period at the mart or in transport, severely stresses calves. This makes them more susceptible to disease, in particular, pneumonia.

Pneumonia accounts for over 30 percent of deaths in calves and is the most important cause of death in Northern Ireland.
Calves surviving a severe pneumonia attack can often be left with residual lung damage which causes them to grow more slowly than healthy calves.

An important form of pneumonia in recently weaned and newly housed single suckled calves is acute Pasteurella pneumonia ('transit fever' or 'shipping fever'). This is usually seen in the first few weeks after housing and is caused by the bacterial agent Pasteurella haemolytica. Outbreaks of pneumonia in young cattle can also be caused by viruses such as RSV. Reducing stress in the animals, as described, will help reduce the incidence and severity of Pasteurella pneumonia.

Note: The RSV vaccine needs to be given in two doses, three weeks apart, with the second injection at least one week before sale.

Contact your veterinary surgeon for advice on control of respiratory disease.

Weaning Suckled Calves

Although weaning is not a requirement of the Premium Plus Suckled Calf Scheme, it is preferable to wean calves at grass to minimise stress and the risk of pneumonia.

Weaning at grass:

Feed meal four - six weeks in advance of weaning.
Aim to have calves eating 1.5kg of meal at weaning.
Select two adjacent fields.

dry ground
sheltered field
separated by sound hedge and fence

Select two - three dry windy days.
Wean calves in two halves ensuring calves suckling thin cows or heifers are weaned first.
Put weaned calves on best grass with unweaned calves and mothers.

After weaning:

Aim to get calves eating 2kg of a 16 percent crude protein meal as soon as possible - purchased rations or straights (70 percent orange citrus: 30 percent soya 50+ minerals and vitamins).
Provide the best grass to weaned calves.
Leave weaned calves out for as long as possible.
If grass is scarce supplement with silage or hay.

Weaning indoors:

It is not always possible to obtain the right conditions for weaning outdoors. As described, calves should be creep fed meals before weaning.

Select two - three dry windy days.
Use a well ventilated house with creeps.
Clip a 15-20cm wide strip along the back of each calf.
Provide a straw bedded creep on slats if necessary.
Feed cows and calves high dry matter silage or hay.
Wean calves abruptly after two - three days.

After weaning:

Offer dry roughage ad lib to calves along with 2kg of a 16 percent crude protein meal.
If the weather fairs and grass is plentiful it is probably best to turn the cows out to graze. This will be less stressful than turning out calves settled on winter rations.

Selling Weanlings

Many auction marts in Northern Ireland are running sales for Premium Plus Suckled Calves.

Participating auctioneers are prepared to:

Contact weanling producers and encourage them to join the scheme.
Organise and advertise Premium Plus sales.
Provide special pens and labels for Premium Plus calves.
Assist with the matching of calves before sale.
Administer seller declarations and sponsored prizes.