Learn to Produce Healthy Calves or Improve Your Current Calf Production
Study the proper management of a cow's pregnancy and birth; and appropriately raising of a new animal. Learn about housing, weaning, and general health management. A useful course for farmers, farm hands, breeders or anyone contemplating a future in the dairy or beef industries.
Course Duration: 100 hours
Course Structure:
There are 7 lessons in this course:
- Calving and Culling
- Introduction
- Research into raising dairy calves
- Principles of good calf rearing
- Pre-calving management
- Managing the cow for a healthy calf
- Colostrum management
- Calf selection
- Estimated Breeding Value (EBV)
- Culling
- Assessing calves for suitability in a rearing system
- Calving Management
- The birth of a calf
- Signs that the birth is close
- Stages in a normal birth
- Calving problems
- Important points
- Abnormal presentations
- The calf at birth
- Colostrum
- Stress and pathogen exposure
- Managing stress
- Managing pathogen exposure
- The calf digestive tract
- Rumen development
- Bacteria
- Liquid in the rumen
- Outflows of rumen materials
- Absorptive qualities
- Substrate (Dry feed Intake)
- Calf Health Management
- Overview
- Common calf diseases
- Scours
- Coccidiosis
- Round Worm Scours
- Lung worm
- Calf diptheria
- Pneumonia
- Clostridial Disease
- salmonella
- Navel and joint ill
- Stress and the young calf
- Transport stress
- Feeding stress
- Heat and cold
- Calf-Rearing Systems
- Birth to weaning
- Natural Systems of Calf Rearing
- Single suckling
- Multiple suckling
- Foster suckling
- Race suckling
- Early weaning
- Artificial systems of calf rearing
- Teaching the calf to drink
- A basic Feeding program
- Milk Substitute
- Common calf rearing systems
- Rearing calves at grass
- Five and a half day system
- Once a day system
- Cold milk system
- Acidified milk replacers
- Mildly acidic milk replacers
- Strongly acidic milk replacers
- Milk-fed veal production
- Calf Housing
- Ventilation
- Isolation
- Comfort
- Economy
- Calf Pens
- Metal crates
- The calf hutch
- Weaning
- Stress at weaning
- General weaning transition strategies
- Providing water
- Weaning at twelve and eight weeks
- Weaning at five weeks
- Weaning at four weeks
- Post-weaning
- Post weaning period
- Calf husbandry practices
- Reducing surgical stress
- Cattle identification
- Castration
- Bloodless castration
- Surgical Castration
- Dehorning
- When to dehorn
- Dehorning instruments and equipment
- Tetanus
- Vaccination and Worming
Enrol Today
Ready to get started? Click on the orange enrol now button.
Have questions? Click here to email our course counsellors.
Praise for this Course:
"Been working in the livestock (Dairy Cattle) industry for years and thought I knew it all. Calf rearing was one area I had limited knowledge of, and due to a new work role, I needed to know more... QUICKLY!!! This course allowed me the freedom to work within the industry and learn at the same time. I learnt a lot of new and diverse calf rearing options that have now better prepared me for the 'real world' of calf rearing and my new role within the dairy industry. A great 'grounding' course, even for those who are hands on in raising claves. I have recommended this course to a few calf rearers already! I'd be happy to highly recommend the course to anyone with an interest in raising the next quality batch of calf replacements on their farm."
Tiffany Gordon, Australia
"I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to raise calves!!"
R. Beitlich, Australia
