Farmers and grazing livestock alike enjoyed the recent spell of warm, dry weather conditions, but caution is still needed when turning calves out to grass.
Over the past week, daytime temperatures have been reaching 24°C and above in cases but night-time temperatures are dropping to 4°C in cases – a temperature differential of 20° in the space of a day.
This can have an impact on the health and performance of young calves – especially those that have only recently been weaned off milk and turned outdoors.
Ensuring a gradual transition in the diet and environment for a calf is generally the best way to minimise stress on calves during the transition from the shed to an outdoor environment.
Before turning calves out to grass, the Teagasc advice is to ensure calves are fully weaned off milk for a period of time and are confidently eating sufficient quantities of concentrate ration.
While there is a difference of opinion on what level of concentrates calves should be eating when weaned off milk and going to grass, as a general rule of thumb, calf concentrate intakes should be at 1.5kg/head/day or above.
When letting calves to grass, some farmers also like to continue offering roughage in the form of hay or straw to calves even post turnout from the shed.
Ensuring calves are up-to-date on their vaccination programme is also advisable to minimise the risk of factors like pneumonia impacting calf health and performance.
Dairy-beef calves generally weigh in the region of 85-100kg when going to grass and, in order to sustain a target average daily live weight gain of 0.7-0.8kg/day, calves cannot afford to get any health setbacks.
Closely monitoring calves visual appearance and dung for signs of scour is also advisable with quick action needed if any calves have high temperatures or appear dull or unwell.
Calves are picky grazers and, when adjusting to their new grass diet, should not be expected to fully graze out paddocks. In addition, access to fresh, clean water should be available at all times.
As the calves develop over the year, graze-outs will gradually improve. Ensure calves have access to fresh grass every few days -rotational grazing calves will help ensure fresh grass while also reducing the build-up of parasites in the paddocks.
As with many things, it is better to be proactive than reactive and even hardy, healthy calves that have been weaned fully off milk for 2-3 weeks will need close monitoring post turnout.
