Dairy farmers will have to realise they will need to pay us retired sucklermen to take these awful calves. Perhaps it would be better to get to the root of the problem and cull all these crossbred dairy herds and promote the friesians !when the suckler farms, work out how to rear bucket calves, as a lot don't, and as you so rightly say, management has to be top notch, that may take out the better calves, but the lower end ? The biggest problem, for us dairy farmers, is going to be, finding a home for those calves, and, to find a home, they have to be profitable, and we have to realise, the sheer number of extra calves, that, when euthanasia is not allowed, by your milk contract, will have to find a home.
And, what are the consequences, for us, if we cannot find a home, and we are forced to keep them alive ? We are sleepwalking into a massive problem, the best we can hope for, is a scheme to rear them for a new end product, or a relaxation of the rules, to allow those rubbish end, to disappear. Figures do vary, but an extra 20%, is a figure used, and that gives a number of 200,000 calves, a hell of a lot.