Make sure you have enough space prepared for your peak calving period

TEAGASC dairy specialist Nicholas McKenna outlines how to prepare facilities for calving this spring.

According to Nicholas, one aspect of the calving season that may get overlooked is ensuring that you have enough calf space and accommodation to meet peak demand.

He outlines a number of factors which impact on the peak number of calves that will be on a farm which indicates the minimum calf accommodation required also.

Using your breeding records and scanning results you can predict what percentage of your herd will calve in six weeks, the target for this is 90pc with the average currently in Ireland sitting at 64pc. The higher the percentage calved in 6 weeks means the higher the peak number of calves that will be on the farm at any one time.

Age at sale of non-replacement calves (beef & dairy bull calves)

Selling calves is the best way to reduce pressure on facilities, the age at which these calves are sold will have the biggest impact on peak calf numbers on farms.

A 100 cow dairy farm reducing the age of sale from six weeks to two weeks, as shown in table 1 below, could potentially reduce the peak number of calves by >35 which would be a huge pressure reduction on calf accommodation and labour.

Farmers should calculate the area available on the farm currently that can be used for calf accommodation, calves require a minimum of 1.7m2 of floor space. According to Nicolas, to simplify matters, a standard single bay of a shed measuring 4.8m x 5m (24m2) can house 14 calves.

“By working out the peak number of calves on a farm, calculating the minimum space required at peak, minus the available calf space shows if a farm has enough accommodation. Depending on this farmers may need to either increase accommodation or sell calves at a younger age.”

He also says that knowing the number of calves that will be on a farm at peak also allows a farmer to ensure they have enough calf equipment such as drinkers, troughs, calf jackets etc. Increasing the amount of feeders for calves will reduce labour but also improve calf health by reducing cross contamination among calf groups.

Planning ahead and predicting peak calf numbers on your farm is extremely important, it allows you to prepare or make changes in time as when calving begins time can be in short supply.