Val & Richard Wedd - Overall Winners of the Heifer Rearer of the Year Award 2011
13 September 2011
Val & Richard Wedd - Overall Winners of the Heifer Rearer of the Year Award 2011
What the judges liked
Routinely monitor colostrum quality
Weigh calves each time handled to ensure targets met
Groups of heifers remarkably uniform in size
Keen to consider and adopt new ideas
Richard and Val Wedd have revised their heifer rearing management for two reasons; numerical and financial. The couple who manage the business in a family partnership with Richard’s parents, Tom and Janet, are currently expanding their closed herd from 100 to 150 milking cows based at Piltons Farm, Burton on Trent, and they need as many heifer replacements as possible. They’re also focused on reducing days to first calving; currently only two thirds of the heifer crop is calving at 24 months. “The sooner we can get their milk in the tank, the faster we’ll make a return on investment,” Richard explains.
To bring a sharper strategic focus to their rearing practices, the couple recently attended a one day XL Vets Farm Skills calf rearing course. “Apart from having the opportunity to meet and discuss with other farmers, we brought home a lot of ideas which we’re putting in to practice. We now feel in more control of what we’re doing and are giving our calves every opportunity to grow better,” says Val.
“Firstly, we believe in feeding colostrum for the first four days, and we now use a colostromter to check its quality. Then we made a big decision to swap feeding waste milk that had been fed to every calf from a teat bucket to specialist whey based calf milk replacer containing 26% protein and specifically developed for modern dairy cows. We use a thermometer to check the water is at 39ºC pre mixing every single feed, and we always make sure we mix the milk thoroughly,” she explains. “We’ve noticed that nutritional scours have been reduced to an absolute minimum and we are now growing much more consistent groups of calves.
“We are attempting to grow the calves as fast possible for the first five months while feed conversion rate is at its greatest. We target weaning at 76kg at between seven to eight weeks, 300kgs at nine months and 350kg to 380kg at first service from 13 months. The course introduced us to using a weighband to check individual calf growth rates, and it informs me when to wean, regardless of age. I may have been a bit ambitious weighing weekly, when monthly maybe more realistic, however it’s certainly got me focused in particular to identify any slower growing calves that used to get lost in the system, and then as a minimum we weigh every time the heifers go through the race.” She adds: “This extra attention to detail is certainly helping us to achieve our new targets which we trust will be maintained through to first calving.”
Tim O’Sullivan, Shropshire Vets
My impression as a vet was that this is a herd achieving excellent results through a combination of good old fashioned stockmanship and an enthusiasm for learning and implementing the most up to date thinking in healthy, profitable heifer rearing. The farm is not without its disease challenges but by working with their own vet the Wedds have implemented a vaccination and control program to avoid preventable losses and to produce healthy heifers with good immune status to provide the backbone of the future expansion of the herd.
Back to news