EggTek-C Helps Sale-Yard Calves Bounce Back in Just Six Days

Each autumn, Waikato dairy farmers Jason and Rowan Turner purchase calves to rear as part of an off-season project.

This year, the Turners bought 94 Friesian bull calves from the sale yards and brought them home to raise through to 100kg using their Holm & Laue automated calf feeder (the CalfExpert). While the Turners have used the Queen of Calves nutrition programme for years to achieve strong daily liveweight gains, buying calves from multiple sources at the sale yards can come with its challenges.

“You often inherit a mix of animals from the sales yards. They are not the same as replacements born on farm." says Jason.

Despite having a solid support system in place, the Turners knew they needed something extra to keep these calves on track. The Turners added Bell-Booth EggTek-C to their normal feeding routine as per the label. They offered the calves four grams of EggTek-C daily for a couple of weeks.

“The CalfExpert systems allows us to track feed quantities for each calf and it will quickly identify any change to their drinking behaviour. With the new hopper it will dispense EggTek-C easily into all calves milk this spring.”

Using data from the Holm & Laue system, the Turners tracked the return to appetite and milk intake. Once calves were back to expected feeding levels, they discontinued EggTek-C - but the gains held. The bulls still weaned at 100kg liveweight. They had only two losses out of 94 animals which is a strong result for any autumn rearing project.

For the coming spring, the Turners plan to dose EggTek-C via the CalfExpert from day one of the calf’s life for two weeks to build immunity in their replacement heifers.