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Dr Jean Margerison,
Massey University
Feeding calves high quality fibre during their first three months of life may help increase fertility and result in less lameness.
Around 15 years of research has clearly shown that it is important to maximise growth in a calf’s first phase of life and that fibre plays a key role in achieving that growth.
Dr Jean Margerison, who works as a researcher at Massey University says that, “research supports the fact that fibre is required to assist rumen development. Dairy farmers make a large investment into securing good genetics in their dairy herds but the benefits of that investment can be lost if replacements do not come into the dairy herd at adequate maturity levels and calves need the correct nutrition during that early pre-puberty growth phase. Zero to three months is one of the key phases where farmers can make a considerable impact and help ensuring that dairy heifers achieve a good mature weight at mating and entry to the dairy herd. It is critical to have adequate levels of good quality protein in the calves’, diet such as that found in good quality forages and calf feeds to ensure they get high levels of lean growth and their mammary growth is optimised.”
Dr Margerison leads a group researching dairy heifer and cow nutrition programs at Massey University. She is specialised in dairy cow and calf nutrition, and its effect on animal physiology and behaviour. In her over 15 years as a researcher Jean has worked specifically on dairy animal nutrition, along with mammary development, reproduction, lameness, animal health, welfare and longevity.
Recent research has revealed that efficient foraging behaviour is established in calves much earlier than previously thought. Dr Margerison recommends that calves are given the opportunity to eat forages and calf feeds from two weeks of age.
In terms of calf management, Dr Margerison says feeding forages early will help promote their natural foraging behaviour by making sure the calves apply their inbuilt foraging behaviour to something positive rather than something negative like sucking each other or chewing on buildings, feeding equipment or the calf rearer!
Dr Margerison also carried out research last year on differing forages including moist Lucerne, which showed that calves that are not offered forages grow slower and don’t consume as much feed. She says, “The research demonstrated that good quality forages are extremely important for calves in terms of achieving good levels of feed intake and growth rates.”
According to the research fibre helps the rumen develop by sloughing off the mucus layer on the papillae, which is commonly referred to as ‘the scratch factor’. This enhances the absorption of volatile fatty acids, which in turn results in good growth rates.
Dr Margerison says farmers should be aiming to maximise calf health and growth during the first three months of life and ensure they achieve optimum mature weights during the rearing period. She says, “Dairy heifers should ideally reach 85% to 90% mature weight at around 22 months old so they will compete well with adult cows and be less likely to be infertile or lame.
A point of concern for Dr Margerison is that the 25% replacement rate in New Zealand is identical to the rate seen overseas where cows are only achieving an average two and a half lactations before they leave the herd.
She says, “When you consider that a lot of New Zealand farms have eight and ten-year-old cows still in their herds, the replacement rate demonstrates to me quite clearly that we are losing young animals from the herd that we should not be losing. That is why it is really important to make sure that heifers come into the herd at a good mature weight so they can forage well, compete well and reproduce.”
“I am absolutely convinced that if we had to cull fewer young animals due to infertility we could actually cull more old less productive cows and increase the productivity of the national herd or reduce the replacement rate. Farmers should be aiming to keep these young animals in the herd for as long as possible. The other thing is, if you are losing young animals you are actually losing your higher genetic merit animals and keeping the older lower genetic merit animals to continue reproducing in the herd.”
Dr Margerison is currently working with Fiber Fresh Feeds Ltd to evaluate and help optimise their calf feed formulations. She says, that good quality forages provide the quality of protein that young calves need to achieve good lean growth.”
Fiber Fresh has introduced a new two-stage calf development program this year aimed to produce bigger and better replacements. The new Freshstart® calf development program is comprised of the already widely accepted FiberGain® for the older calves and a new Stage One feed called FiberStart®. FiberStart® has been especially formulated to encourage rumen development in young calves and ensure they grow and develop correctly. It contains natural easily digested HNF fiber® with 16% captured oats, providing the all-important “scratch factor” while at the same time encouraging the correct mix of micro flora bacteria.
Fiber Fresh Feeds Ltd Managing Director Michael Bell says, “We have specifically developed this world-first program to produce superior animals that are genetically predisposed to increased performance and production. The Freshstart® program is based on solid research and is the culmination of years of experience specialising in fibre-based calf feeds. This combination has enabled us to develop the best method that allows a calf to go from a milk-reliant animal to one that can thrive and grow on pasture.”
Ohaupo farmer David Harris has been rearing his calves with Fiber Fresh for the past seven years as part of a focused calf management program aimed at achieving elite growth in his heifers.
Over that time David’s empty rate has dropped down from 10% to 3%.
David says, “Getting the calves into the elite weight range is certainly helping the heifers get into calf – there’s no doubt about it – and it has helped our production as well.”
Last year David achieved 110,000kgs milksolids from 256 cows, which is an average of 429kgs per cow
While David says the use of Fiber Fresh was one of several of factors that contributed to the increased fertility, he says he knows it is important to feed calves correctly from day one to develop their rumens and says Fiber Fresh definitely does help achieve that.
He says, “One of the things I really like about Fiber Fresh is that it doesn’t cause problems with birds. When we were feeding grain birds would come and eat it and also contaminate it by mucking in it.”
“After using other products, I believe Fiber Fresh is a very good product to use.”
You can find out more about the “FreshStart®” program by contacting your nearest Fiber Fresh Area Consultant on: Tel.0800 545 545, or visiting www.fiber-fresh.com
