Milk producers in the south west of England can now benefit from a new service from Torch Farm Vets that promises to cut the costs of rearing herd replacements.
Torch Farm Vets’ new Youngstock Service focuses on the next generation of dairy cows and includes consultative visits, calf health monitoring and performance benchmarking – all designed to help rearers save significant time and money.
"Sound youngstock rearing really does improve your bottom line. It saves valuable labour and cuts your financial losses from calf diseases, ensures animals become productive sooner and boosts the lifetime milk output from your cows,” said Fiona Dolan from Torch Farm Vets, based in north Devon.
Dr Dolan pointed out that 8% of calves are born dead or die within 24 hours on British farms and 15% of dairy heifers fail to make it through the youngstock rearing period. “These are terrible losses farmers in the south west of England can ill afford to bear. Far too many calves fail to reach adulthood and we want to help our clients reverse the alarming national trend,” she said.
Helping rearers reduce the age at which heifers become productive will be a key focus for the new service. “Recent research says age of first calving (AFC) is the number one influencer on rearing costs. For example, industry studies suggest that if you can reduce your AFC from 26 months to 24 months you can cut your rearing costs by more that 15%. With the national average AFC running at about 28 months it’s likely that many dairy units could save even more.”
Torch Farm Vets will also help rearers improve youngstock health with calf blood tests to assess colostral antibody transfer a key part of the package. “Reducing the impact of disease and calf mortalities will reduce rearing costs significantly. For example, AHDB Dairy research suggests even average mortality adds an additional £143.30 to the cost of rearing each surviving heifer,” Dr Dolan said.
Dairy farms that take up the service will receive four consultative visits a year from the Torch Farm Vets team. The package also includes a youngstock rearing cost assessment, performance monitoring, calf blood tests and access to discounted diagnostic sampling for key calf diseases such as pneumonia and scours.
