Apparently joe public is complaining that it is not welfare friendly to manually ..ie off the dam.. rear calves off the dam and that they should be reared either on the dam or if that doesn't work, on a foster cow. Whats the groups opinion? I can only comment from a dairy farmer's point of view and many years ago, we did rear them on the dam. With no idea how much milk they were consuming from big dairy cows, scours were commonplace, treatment for that was difficult as they were still sucking the dam and the stress caused to the dam .. and the neighbours .. when the calf was taken away was horrendous. We now get none of that with calves moved to manual feeding a few days after calving. The cows don't go looking for the calf and the calf still gets the dams milk. If for any reason we have to leave the calf on the dam for longer, yes , provided they both stay healthy, they do put on weight quicker but then, when we have to take the calf away, we have the stressed cow screaming the place down and a calf that likes a cows teat better than a plastic one!! I question how much the general public really understand what we do and why we do it, and how much of these comments originate from the masses, or how much from supermarkets etc trying to outdo others
Only rearing calves on dams or foster cows?
- Thread starter glow worm
- Start date
Joe Public or 0.1% of extremists?
Joe Public want cheap food, they care loads about animal welfare and the environment until it comes to the checkout when they only care about cost. Give me £1/liter and I will rear all the calves on the cows......actually scrap that, my calves can probably out drink my cows production!
Joe Public want cheap food, they care loads about animal welfare and the environment until it comes to the checkout when they only care about cost. Give me £1/liter and I will rear all the calves on the cows......actually scrap that, my calves can probably out drink my cows production!
lazy farmer
Member
- Location
- som/dor border
As above
Dead Rabbits
Member
- Location
- 'Merica
As beefy said. Most of us produce a nameless faceless commodity traded on a global scale and sold to people who buy based largely on price. I’ll do or grow whatever people want if it makes money. So far not enough people want milk from cows that raise their own calves to have any effect on the commodity market.
A previous job of mine all replacements were reared on Nurse cows and he still does it. It’s good fun that I enjoyed. Requires some intense management to get good results.
Someone should be along shortly with a link to the Scottish guy who got people to give him a pile of money to let the cows raise all their calves. More power to the guy, he’s a tryier.
A previous job of mine all replacements were reared on Nurse cows and he still does it. It’s good fun that I enjoyed. Requires some intense management to get good results.
Someone should be along shortly with a link to the Scottish guy who got people to give him a pile of money to let the cows raise all their calves. More power to the guy, he’s a tryier.
betweenthelines
Member
- Location
- southwest
Wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the public either don't give a damn, or think calves, like kittens and puppies just need a few weeks on the tit anyway.
Half the public don't even know that bacon and ham comes from pigs.
Half the public don't even know that bacon and ham comes from pigs.
- Location
- NI
Out of curiosity, is there anyone on here multi sucking cows as their business? Used to have an aunt who reared 30-40 calves a year on 5 or 6 old dairy cows.
Tarw Coch
Member
- Location
- Bottom of Wats Dyke
I wonder what percentage of the public rear their offspring on the dam and how many use a milk powder replacement
