The South Hillend farmers raise about 1000 calves a year from their 4500 cows which are on eight properties, the furthest 10km apart, run by lower-order sharemilkers.
“What we do works and we don’t want to make it complicated. It’s a demanding time of the year and we like to make it as enjoyable as possible for everyone,” Mike said.
The same calf-rearing policies are used on all the Southland farms. Calves are collected once a day, usually about mid-morning, with all calves brought in, as well as cows which are having calving difficulties. However, if the weather is bad, staff are out with the calving mob twice or even three times a day.
“We want to have as many live animals as possible. We don’t like the calf trailers too full. If there is a big load sometimes they are walked in with their mums.”
Calves are identified in the paddock and tagged with brass tags, and navels are sprayed with iodine. All AI heifer calves are kept, with bull calves and those from natural matings bobbied.
“We don’t DNA test as we’re not selling stock and all we want is a sound, healthy animal. We are telling our staff this year not to keep calves from cows with bad udders. It’s something we’re concentrating on at the moment. We want a cow with good udder conformation that can go the distance.”
Calves are fed colostrum collected from cows that have calved that day.
“That’s what is really important, getting them that first milk. We get them sucking on a small feeder or a bottle and then move them up to a bigger feeder.”
Spring weather has been kind lately in the south so few calves have needed to be tube fed. However if the calves come in cold and wet the Horgans have the facilities and equipment to warm them up and get them drinking.
Calves are fed twice a day with stored colostrum, have fresh water available and are kept in small groups in former shearing sheds.
“Dairy farmers have the luxury in Southland of nearly every farm having large covered yards and a shearing shed,” Mike said.
“They make ideal calf-rearing sheds with their grating, they all have good lighting and the shearing sheds have load-out facilities for the bobbies.”
Pens are sprayed with disinfectant once a week and there is a close watch kept on the calves’ health.
“We like to have the one person responsible for the calves on each farm. That way they notice if there is any change or anything going wrong,” Maree said.
“We have about a 2% death rate once they come into the sheds.”
One farm had a problem with rotovirus in the past and that herd is vaccinated and the bark chip bedding removed each year, but the other sheds are simply raked over and topped and the cows left unvaccinated.
Antibiotics are not kept in the calf sheds and any calf that is treated is marked with red spray paint.
With each dairy having two vats, the smaller is used to store colostrum until it is needed for milk collection.
“It’s refrigerated and stirred so it keeps really well,” Mike said.
Excess colostrum is stored in large plastic tankers fitted with Calfmate colostrum automated stirrers, developed and manufactured by Agweld Engineering in Southland. Each has a motor with stainless steel paddles.
“The stirrers stop the colostrum separating out. It works a lot better than adding yoghurt.”
Bobbies are kept until they are four days old, as per regulations, but up to 10 days if needed. Any late calves born after the bobby pickup has finished are taken by a neighbouring sheep farmer who raises them for the beef market.
“We have to euthanise very few calves and the ones we do have to are shot. Most of the farms have at least one staff member who is a hunter and has a gun. Staff don’t like doing it.”
The calves to be reared as replacements are trucked to the 480ha Hamilton Burn runoff at Mossburn, 45km away, at 10 to 20 days old.
“They are fed in the morning as usual and the truck comes after lunch. They walk on no problem.”
At Hamilton Burn they are looked after by farm manager, Cam Brisco, and his assistant, Quinn McLeod, who is the Horgans’ son-in-law.
There they are kept in sheds in large mobs but, depending on the weather, are soon out on pasture in mobs of 80 fed with two cafeteria trailers pulled by four-wheel-motorbikes.
“For the first two weeks they are usually let out during the day and brought back in at night but if the weather turns bad we can put nearly all 1000 inside. They get new pasture every couple of days and an 18% protein calf mix made locally. At three to four weeks of age the colostrum is only fed once a day and then they are weaned when they reach between 80 and 100kg.
“We don’t use scales. They’re weaned when they are thoroughly enjoying the meal and pasture and they’re looking good.”
Colostrum is transported from South Hillend to Mossburn using a tractor and trailer with tanks. The trip is made every two days for six weeks.
“All the antibiotic milk goes up there too so there is never a chance of it being fed to the bobbies. We usually finish the calves on two tonnes of milk powder but otherwise it’s all colostrum.
“The other advantage of having them there is the farm is entirely fenced for sheep. On the dairy farms mostly we’ve only got two wire fences so we couldn’t shift the calves every few days and give them the pasture they need,” Maree said.
The calves stay at Mossburn until they return for calving as two year olds. They are wintered on fodder beet. The Horgans’ eight herds go to a 600ha run off at Dipton for the winter.
The couple have been in Southland for 20 years. They said the only thing that had really changed in raising calves was that once calves and cows were left together for two to four days before they were brought in, while now a calf will be with its mother for at most 24 hours and at the least, no time at all.
“Imagine bringing in cows and calves now only every few days. There would just be too many of them to handle all at once,” Maree said.
They said the change has forced farmers to realise the importance of every calf in the first few hours after birth getting colostrum from a cow that has just calved.
Mike believes patience is all important when rearing calves.
“And respect for the animal. We have 30 families working for us and it always comes down to respect. Respect for our people and for our animals. That’s what we ask from all of our staff.”
