Raising of calf

Reason for calf raising is to prevent high mortality of calves in tropics due to:
1. Poor feeding and management
2. Inadequate health of calves
3. Worm infestations.

Raising of calves is necessary for following reasons:

1. For early maturity on high plane of nutrition
2. For good returns of capital
3. For avoiding risk of infection in herd
4. For building a good dairy herd

System of raising dairy calf

1. Keeping calf with its dam: in this system of rearing calf is allowed to suckle milk directly
from its mothers udder a little before and little after milking.
2. Weaning system: in this system, the calf is kept away from its dam and fed artificially. There
are also practices of removing calf from dam.
 Weaned immediately after birth
 Calf remain with dam for 2 to 3 days and removed to calf pen

Advantages of weaning
1. Cow continues to give milk whether or not calf is alive
2. Calf can be culled at an early stage
3. With the help of milk substitute calves can be raised economically even if the dam dies.
4. Avoid risk of complications due to under feeding and over feeding a calf.
5. Exact amount of ilk produced by a be determined
6. Cows became regular breeder. Calving interval in weaned calves reported to be to 14 months
against 16 to 18 months in unweaned calves.

Teaching calf to drink milk

1. Hand feeding: Calf should go without food for first few hours to develop an appetite. Then calf
should be taken to one corner of the pen and insert two fingers of right hand into the mouth,
while holding milk in left hand convenient for the calf. While calf suckles the fingers, the
muzzle is gradually pressed down into milk pan. This way calf will learn to drink milk soon.

2. Pail feeding: A pail containing milk for calf is placed at the convenient height. Pail has a nipple
attached to a side near the bottom through which the calf can suckle milk.

Milk feeding to calf: Amount of whole milk feeding to calf is generally one tenth of the calf’s body
weight. Factors influencing amount of milk are:
 Body weight
 Breed
 Growth rate
 Age
 Health conditions etc.

1
Skim milk feeding: after two week of whole milk feeding, it can be replaced by skim milk at a gradual
rate. Skim milk feeding may be discontinued at 24 weeks of age.

Reconstituted milk or butter milk feeding: normal butter milk of reconstituted skim milk may also
be fed in place of fresh skim milk for raising dairy calves specially when calves have access to legume
hay.

Feeding calf starter:

An ideal calf starter contains 20 percent DCP and 70 per cent TDN. It is mixture of grains protein
feeds, mineral, vitamins and antibiotics. A good calf starter should palatable enough, rich in energy
content and should contain 18 to 20 per cent protein and fibre less than 7 per cent.

Maize 35 kg
Barley 15 kg
Groundnut cake 30 kg
Wheat bran 10 kg
Fish meal 07 kg
Mineral mixture 02 kg
Common salt 01 kg
Antibiotic mixture 100g
Vitablend (AB2D2) 15 g

Feeding milk replacers: Milk can also be substituted with milk replacer to make calf raising
economical

Wheat 10.0
Fish meal 12.0
Linseed meal 40.0
Milk 13.0
Coconut oil 7.0
Linseed oil 3.0
Citric acid 1.5
Molasses 10.0
Mineral mixture 3.0
Butyric acid 0.3
Antibiotic mixture 0.3
Rovimix (AB2D2) 0.015

Removal of extra teats: An ideal udder with four well placed teats appears to be balanced. Extra teat if
any should be clipped off with a pair of sterilized scissors, and a disinfectant such as tincture of iodine
must be applied.