Cosy Calf

Fifteen years of rearing calves through Dorset winters — and the idea of lets design a jacket by a farmer for farmers.

Having reared calves on and off for 15 years or more, I have first-hand experience of the problems faced keeping calves healthy during the first few weeks of life. Average calf losses are put at around 14%, including stillbirths and hard-calving deaths — but losses from infections, scours and pneumonia account for a great percentage of that figure.

Not all of us have draught-free, temperature-controlled buildings to rear calves in. Many of us use older, more traditional farm buildings which are draughty unless maintenance is a constant priority, and often don't have the ventilation to keep pneumonia risk down.

The other extreme is rearing calves in large, open-plan buildings with high roofs, easy to access with farm equipment. Unfortunately, in our climate these buildings often subject calves to massive temperature swings — easily a 12°C drop between day and night.

I've experienced both styles of building and tried to adapt each to find the best conditions for healthy calves. The biggest problems are always the same: how to keep calves at a comfortable, regular body temperature without restricting airflow or increasing humidity, and how to get enough milk and feed into them to keep them growing in cold weather without causing scours.

Having attended a number of veterinary courses on calf rearing, it became clear that many of today's breeds — and the time of year we calve our cows — mean calves really struggle, firstly with cold temperatures, and secondly with dramatic swings from day to night, especially in their first four weeks of life.

That's why Cosy Calf exists: practical, breathable jackets designed and tested on a working Dorset farm, not dreamed up in a boardroom.