Margaret Finlay: The Rainton dairy project has hit its first major hurdle. The calves from the autumn calvers have demonstrated that although 10 to 15 litres of milk a day is more than enough for them - and up to 10 litres a day more than they would get in some conventional rearing systems - they will drink as much as the cow can produce. Based on the milk production records for the individual cows from last year, this can be up to thirty litres a day in some cases!!
08 April 2013 |
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Margaret Finlay: It’s hard to believe that the first calf born in to our new system is now nearly three and a half months old! Normally dairy calves would find themselves taken away from their mothers within 48 hours of birth, confined to a small pen for the first couple of weeks of life, and then mixed with at least five or six other calves of the same age in larger pens. But the 36 calves born here over the past few months are still enjoying having milk on demand as they grow up side-by-side with their mothers.
26 February 2013 |
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Jack Forster: For the last 8 or 10 years we haven’t lambed or calved at all because the butchery takes up so much time. We used to lamb about 300 sheep and calve about 70 cows, but with the decrease in stock prices and the time involved it made sense to just buy in stock to fatten. The tides have changed though, and with the prices of stock thriving at the moment, and also because I am back at home to provide an extra pair of hands, we have decided to tentatively get back into breeding!
17 March 2012 |
6 Comments | Recommended by 3