I read Shawn McAvinue’s article about calf rearing in Southern Rural Life on September 17.
We rear about 650 calves every year. One of the main problems we have every year is sourcing good-quality calves. We rear on contract for a stock company and charge them $470 to rear from 4 to 5 days old to about 16 weeks old and 100kg. In your article, the farmer talks about the rearer not turning up to pick up the calves. This is not our experience as we usually pick up two to three times per week or by arrangement with the farmers.
The photos of the calves show a clean white face but solid-colour legs. The ideal calf is a bull, black with clear white face and four white legs. These command the best price at 100kg and are highly sought after.
Anything broken-face with solid legs indicates that the mother is a Jersey cross or KiwiCross and to be honest is not worth the cost of rearing. It’s a problem that has been brought about by the dairy industry chasing the maximum milk solids per hectare with the crossbred cow being slightly smaller than a straight Friesian, lighter on the ground and eats less but produces well. Unfortunately, even with a good Hereford or Charolais bull across the KiwiCross cow the calves tend to be a bit average. Another point is that a calf that is short gestation is normally a lot smaller and they don’t grow properly so are a waste of time rearing.
