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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Good calf management practices

Livestock

By Paul Kang'ethe | Jun 14, 2020

Calf management practices are those activities that a farmer should carry out on a calf as you prepare the it to become a heifer or bull. These practices include but are not limited to the following:

Calf weaning

Weaning enables the dam to resume the heat cycles and is done at between 3-4 months of age. Calves should be weaned when there is adequate pasture. To reduce stress at weaning, allow the cow and calf to see, smell and touch each other.

Calves are weaned at 12 weeks of age for early weaning or at 16 weeks for late weaning

Gradually reduce the liquid diet over a period of 10 days finally to one liquid meal per day.

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Proper feeding

Proper feeding entails feeding your calf with feeds well constituted with carbohydrates, proteins, mineral salts and vitamins as well as clean water. The quantities should be sufficient and be of good quality. This ensures that your calf is healthy, fertile and grows faster to reach optimum market weight for the bull or to maturity for the heifer to be served.

Castration

Castration is done to reduce inbreeding and to achieve well-distributed fat in beef animals. A Burdizzo castrator can be used for castration. It should be done when the bull calf can feed enough.

Disbudding

Disbudding is done to tame aggressive animals that are prone to fighting. It is done 2 to 3 months of age or as soon as the horn tip can be clearly felt. Use proper equipment. Use disbudding iron or caustic stick. To disbud, heat the iron until red hot. Clip off the hair about 1 centimeter around horn area. Place the heated iron end over the bud at intervals of 5 to 10 seconds, each time firmly but not hard pressure. Stop heating when the color of the bottom of the bud turns dark grey and apply disinfectant.

Calf marking

All calves should be marked after birth. This is very crucial for purposes of proper identification and record keeping. One can use ear tagging, tattooing and branding.

Removal of extra teats

Extra teats are a bother especially in case of machine milking and are also the source of mastitis. Cut the extra teats off carefully at an age of 2 to 3 weeks of age using a sharp pair of scissors. Disinfect the wound with iodine.

De-worming

De-worming in calves must be done if there are signs of parasite attack. Treatment protocol depends on worm count and the general state of health of the animal. Use effective dewormers as advised by the Vet.

Disease control

Dipping or spraying using effective acaricides helps in control of external parasites such as ticks, mites and fleas. This is done to avoid transmission of diseases to the animals. Spraying and dipping should be done weekly or twice a week depending on the tick/insect pressure. Sometimes in high tick infestation areas, it is beneficial to let the animals have a few ticks in order to develop resistance to many of the tick borne diseases.

Vaccination

This involves application of protective medicine to prevent bacterial and viral diseases. For calves, vaccination against East Coast Fever (ECF), Brucellosis, Anthrax and Blackquarter is essential. ECF is vaccinated for as from 1 month of age and above. Brucellosis vaccination is done at 3-8 months of age. Blackquarter and Anthrax are vaccinated against at 6 months of age. Mature cows undergo routine vaccinations as recommended against major diseases such as Rift Valley Fever (RVF), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), Brucellosis, Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD), Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) among others.

Adapted from the Farmers Handbook.