Livestock

Getting the optimum quantity and quality of colostrum is key for new born calves – but making the right choice when it comes to following on from colostrum onto milk replacers is also vital.

For Mark and Susie Mottershead, who farm at The Brook, Wrexham, the 2020 lockdown prompted a focus on calves within their pedigree Holstein herd which were not performing as well as they wanted them to.

When rearing all your own replacement heifers within a closed herd, the team at the University of Edinburgh’s Langhill Farm says it is particularly important calves get off to a good start.

Dairy, beef and sheep farmers are being encouraged to record their on-farm antibiotic use via Medicine Hub, either via their vet or individually.

With the aim of making their ice cream the ‘greenest in the world’, producing a highly efficient milking herd is a top priority for the team at Mackie’s, in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.

Through better calf rearing facilities and the initiation of early life vaccination against pneumonia, the Hann family has seen significant improvements in the health and well-being of the calves in their pedigree Holstein herd at Rodden Down, Frome, Somerset.

With rising costs and the need to be carbon conscious, breeding productive, efficient and profitable dairy cattle has never been so paramount.

Despite the weather of late being decidedly summery, the markers which point to the final third of the farming year are becoming more pronounced.

But there was a nervousness around the sheep rings for producers in areas affected by the drought

The countryside has been set ablaze as heatwaves during July and August resulted in tinder box conditions, with more than 500 reports of farm fires reported to NFU Mutual.