Update to UK calf management and housing strategies

The principal aim of dairy calf rearing is to efficiently produce healthy replacements that can reach their genetic production potential, there-by ensuring the longevity of dairy businesses. However, this goal must now be achieved while considering consumer perceptions of animal welfare and navigating rising costs, labour shortages and increasing sustainability pressures. Providing advice without accounting for all these factors will result in recommendations that have limited uptake within the industry. This article summarises research on calf management strategies, focusing on housing and its impact on calf health and welfare.

A questionnaire of UK farmers who reared dairy calves commercially was carried out in 2020, and had 216 responses (Mahendran et al, 2022). A key finding wasthe recognition of the low level of regular hands-on veterinary involvement in day-to-day health decision-making for calves. It may be that treatment protocols for calves are covered in herd health plans (HHPs) and farm staff feel appropriately trained to make treatment decisions. However, veterinary practices should ensure standard operating procedures (SOPs) for diagnosing and treating diseased calves are in place and are being used across farm clients. These should be a ‘live’ document that is regularly reviewed and revised depending on changing farm conditions, and not simply included in HHPs as a result of standard requirements. Given the impact of changing seasonal conditions for calves, a minimum of twice-yearly reviews might be advisable, with a rationale for quarterly reviews to changes in the weather and disease patterns to be considered when reviewing calf health SOPs.