Artificial rearing of calves for dairy replacements or beef and veal production

National Consultative Committee on Animal Welfare (NCCAW) Position Statement - November 1996

Housing

Housing for artificially reared calves should be hygienic, adequately ventilated and have climate control and lighting. Calves must be protected from rain, wind and extreme temperatures.

Flooring should be well drained with adequate dry lying space for each calf.  Flooring and internal surfaces should not cause injury and should allow easy cleaning.

To alleviate health problems, stress or aggression, careful attention should be given to:

• group sizes
  
• access to feed
  
• bedding
  
• milking shed location
  
• ancillary accommodation
  
• lighting
  
• air inlets and outlets
  
• handling facilities, and
  
• stalls.

Where large numbers of calves are reared, they should be grouped by age and size to reduce competition for food and to allow closer observation and management.

Calf rearing systems, using pens or cribs to house calves individually and continually, should take into account normal calf behaviour for their available floor area.  The floor area:

• must be sufficient to enable each calf to freely turn around, stretch out and lie down comfortably.
  
  
• should allow at least 1.5 square metres for each calf individually housed in pens or cribs.
  
  
• must have a minimum pen height of 1 metre with provision of additional height to allow for adequate ventilation space.

Calves are social animals and seek the company of other calves, and this social interaction is an important calf welfare need.

Systems using individual pen or crib housing must facilitate visual contact between calves by:

• allowing uninterrupted visual contact between calves at the front of individual pens, and
  
  
• restricting the height of solid partitions between calves to a maximum of 50 centimetres from the floor, and permitting social interaction and full vision of other calves.
  
  
• In cold weather, feeds with a high energy value should be provided.

Feeding

Calves should receive at least two litres of fresh or preserved colostrum or an approved substitute within the first 12 hours following birth. They should continue to receive colostrum for the first three days after birth and then fed at least daily on enough liquid milk, commercial milk-replacer or colostrum, to provide essential requirements for maintenance and growth.

High quality pasture, hay pellets or straw should be available to calves from no later than three weeks of age to help develop their digestive tracts and to ease the stress of weaning.

Milk-replacers based on skim milk should not be fed to calves under three weeks old unless they are in a properly balanced formulated mixture of protein, fat and vitamins. Milk replacers should be reconstituted according to manufacturers instructions. Milk and milk-replacers should not be fed in excess of body temperature (39^oC).

Calves should be weaned off milk, milk replacer or colostrum onto rations only when their ruminant digestive systems have developed sufficiently enough to enable them to maintain growth and well-being.

• Weaning off milk or milk replacer may be an opportune time to introduce calves into group housing.
  
  
• The process of weaning can occur as early as three weeks of age.

Restricted rations of the "white veal" type ie iron deprived diets (lower than 20 ppm iron) which cause anaemia, are unacceptable.