Raising dairy calves requires knowledge, skill, and investment to produce healthy replacement dairy cows. The document outlines the six phases of calf raising from birth to calving: 1) pre-calving, 2) birth to weaning, 3) weaning to six months, 4) six months to breeding, 5) breeding to near-calving, and 6) near-calving. Key aspects discussed include colostrum feeding, housing, feeding schedules, vaccinations, and health management to produce calves that meet growth targets and are suitable to enter the milking herd. The goal is calves that calve at 24 months old and have longevity and high milk production.

1. Calf management for dairy
Raising calves is a profession, a career and an art. The progression of a new born calf to a high
producing dairy cow entails more than most dairy products consumer realize and it involves
knowledge, skill, long hours of hard work, a large capital investment and truthfully, a little luck.
Through proper feeding, management and health practices reduced death rates are achieved,
increased weight gain and so on. The annual economic loss of higher –than- necessary death losses
and older-than-necessary heifers at calving must be a staggering.
The goal of raising dairy heifer calves is to produce an animal that is suitable as a replacement at
the dairy. The ideal replacement heifer;
 Should weigh 1300 pounds (560kgs) or more at calving without being fat
 Should be in good health throughout its growth period
 Will be approximately 24 months of age at calving
 Is genetically and physically a more desirable animal than the one she is replacing.
The genetics of this heifer determine what her potentials are. How she is raised, fed and managed
determine what she will do. When a calf is born, someone has at least a two year investment in her
with no return on that investment to that time. Her longevity in the milking herd and her milking
ability will determine whether that investment is returned along with a reasonable profit. Longevity
and the milking ability are highly related to how she was raised. There are several phases in raising
dairy calves and they include:-
Phase 1:
Pre-calving
Extra attention to the feeding and management of the dry cow can be extremely important to the
health and well-being of the new born calf. Proper feeding and management of the dry cow will
also yield additional pounds of milk during her lactation and fewer post-calving complications.
Feeding the dry cow
The dry cow’s nutrient requirements are small compared to those of heavily lactating cow. When
the cow dries off, her body condition should be what you would like it to be when she calves it is

2. generally agreed that a body condition score of 3.0-3.5 in a scale of 1-5 is desirable. The type and
quality of forage available will determine the amount of grain she will require.
Managing the dry cow
A few days prior to calving down the cow should be placed in a clean, dry and draft –free
environment. One should try to be with the cow at the time of calving. Calving assistance often
prevents birthing fatalities of healthy calves.
Phase II:
Birth to weaning
Make sure that the calf’s throat and nasal passages are clear. If they are not, manually clear them
with your fingers. The cow will usually lick the calf within a few minutes after birth. Disinfect
the naval and its importance as soon as after birth cannot be over emphasized. Disinfection with
a tincture of iodine solution will help prevent invasion of disease organism into the calf’s body,
Colostrum is important due to the calf’s rapidly declining ability to absorb the immunoglobulin
contained in the colostrum. Twelve hours after birth, the calf’s ability to absorb this
immunoglobulin is half of what it was at birth.
The high levels of immunoglobulin contained in the colostrum are essential for the calf to develop
adequate defenses against disease organism. Colostrum should be taken from all four quarters and
fed as a mixture.
Either coarse – textured feeds or small pellets may be fed on started feed to calves and it should
contain a minimum of 16 -18% crude protein. Started feeds should begin at one week of age if
high – quality chopped hay is available, it may be fed at seven days of age. Begin by placing
approximately a half a cup in the feed bucket prior to feeding milk replace. Gradually increase as
the calf eats more.

3. Table 1: Below shows intensive calf feeding on milk in litrers and concentrates in kgs and
schedule from birth to weaning (Courtesy of Baraka farm)
Age (weeks) Milk (Litres) Concentrates in (kgs)
1 4 0
2 5 0
3 6 Hand
4 6 Hand
5 5 0.5
6 5 0.5
7 4 1
8 3 1
9 2 1
10 1 2
11 0.5 2
12 0 2
To ensure that a calf feeds normally the following shows daily feeding form that ensures feed
intake is normal as well as an approximate feed left over after feeding.
Management practices
Follow these guidelines for successful calf production
 Identify calves at birth. Use ear tags or some other acceptable identification method so that
records may be accurately kept of calf’s breeding health.
 Observe calves closely a minimum of twice daily
 Keep calves in separate pens for up to twelve weeks.

4.  Keep drinking pails, automatic waterers, and feed pails 20 inches off the floor.
 Keep stalls and pens draft – free and avoid sudden temperature changes.
 Always use clean pails and bottles.
 Always provide clean, fresh water.
 Observe calves closely for external and internal parasites.
 Dehorn and remove supernumerary teats before two months of age.
Phase 3:
Weaning to six months of age
The next stage in the development of the replacement heifer is her growing phase. At the end of
this stage, the larger- breed calves, Holstein and Brown Swiss, should weigh at least 400 pounds.
These weight goal need to be met if the calf is to achieve her proper breeding weight at 15 months
of age. The proper nutritional content of this feed will depend upon quality of the forages to which
they have access.
Management practices
Calves are not eating large quantity of forages and are not mature enough to obtain large amounts
of nutrients from them. For these reasons certain management practices should be followed which
will allow the calf a better opportunity to consume her grain and forages.
 Always group calves in groups of similar age and size. This helps to eliminate competition for
feed from older more aggressive cattle. It also aid in reducing the spread of infectious disorders
from the older heifers to younger.
 Smaller groups of five calves are always preferable because it eliminates competition and aid
in disease control. Smaller groups are easier to handle if one needs special attentions.
 There should be enough feed bunk space to allow all calves to eat at the same time.
 Only high-quality, fresh forages should be fed and be fed frequently especially silage.
 Never feed left over hay or grain from another group of cows and calves.
 Never overfeed.
Feed grains and forages that are nutritionally balanced for protein, energy, vitamins and
minerals. This will ensure thrifty and economical growth.

5. Phase 4:
Six to fifteen months (Breeding)
The goal at the end of this stage is to have a heifer that is of the desired size (weight and maturity)
to breed. A heifer’s size rather than her actual age determines her age at puberty, age at breeding
and ease of calving. Research has demonstrated and experience has proven that heifers can calve
at 24 months of age and be as productive as those that calve at older ages. Because they calve 2-5
months sooner, they have less money invested in them large breed heifers should weigh
approximately 850 pounds at 15 months of age and be approximately 50 inches tall at the withers.
Small breed heifers should weight
Approximately 500 (pounds 230 kgs). Heifers should not be permitted to become fat as this
predisposes them to a number of problems.
Management practices
Heifers should be grouped by size and age to prevent competition for feed. The heifers should be
fed 3-4 pounds of a grain mixture per day. The nutrient profile of this fed will depend upon the
quality and availability of the forages the heifer is fed. The ration should be a balanced for
protein, energy, vitamins and minerals. The forage to grain ratio is important in all the growing
phases. If the right amount of grain is fed, the heifer should consume the proper amount of
forage to keep her forage-to –grain ratio at the right level.
VACCINATIONS
Disease forms an important part of livestock and farming without understanding how diseases
affect your farm can be disastrous. When animals are healthy they deliver better products. Diseases
especially caused by a virus and even bacteria are always difficult to cure, because they do not
have a specific drug to treat hence a huge impact. Therefore, the best way to prevent these
infections is through immunization or vaccination where the animal’s body can form antibodies
for a disease hence destroy the etiological agents thereby the stronger the animals immunity the
better chances it has to fight the diseases.
It also important to note that disease may occur on your farm and this helps in planning yearly
vaccine program for the herd so as to prevent diseases.
The main vaccinations undertaking place in most of the farms include (Courtesy of Baraka farm)

6. 1. Black quarter /anthrax vaccine
The vaccine used in this case is blanthrax.
As directed by the vaccine (follow vaccine, program) farmers should vaccinate their animals
regularly and vaccine is mostly active for six months therefore it is done twice a year, that is, after
every six months.
2. Lumpy skin disease
The vaccine used in this case is lumpivax vaccine
To calves they should be administered when they have attained age of six months old
3. Brucellosis disease
Vaccinate heifers with strain S-19 vaccine at age of between 8-12 months old.
4. Foot and mouth disease
Fotivax vaccine is used and is active for approximately three months therefore, vaccination is done
3-4 times a year.
Phase 5:
Breeding to near –calving
If heifers have been properly fed and managed up to the time of breeding, feeding grain should not
be necessary, good quality hay will contain adequate protein and energy. If poor or average –
quality hay is fed, they will require 2-3 pounds of grain. Again, the ration should be balanced for
protein, energy, vitamins and minerals. Free choice minerals and salt will need to be available. Be
careful not to overfeed. Excessive fattening may reduce the heifer’s longevity and producing
ability and predispose her to a variety of metabolic disorders.
Phase 6:
Near calving
Sixty days prior to calving, the heifer should be properly fed with a balanced ration for protein,
energy, vitamins and minerals. Thirty days prior to calving, she should be switched over to the

7. milking herd’s ration. Gradually increase the amount of feed until it reaches steaming up
recommendations. Heifers that are fed and managed properly throughout their various maturing
phase, are capable of calving at 24 months of age. If everything has gone according to schedule,
these heifers will have minimized calving difficulties and will have the opportunity to meet their
genetic potential with the right genetic potential; these animals should have the ability to
outperform the animals they are replacing.
Calving pen
Recommend calving area should have the following conditions
i) A pen where a cow must be free to move around yet confined enough for easy observation.
ii) A pen should be well ventilated to reduce humidity and disease.
iii) A pen should be disinfected regularly to control diseases.
Pen should be kept clean and dry
Calf feeding
Young calves need more than milk to become top producing cows as they are the insurance for the
continuous dairy farming. An early concentrate intake promotes a well-developed and healthy
rumen.
Colostrum should be fed to the new borne calf as soon as possible. The ideal practice is to get the
colostrum into the calf within a half an hour after birth. Since this is not always possible, a general
rule is to feed the colostrum within two hours after birth.
The easiest method of feeding colostrum is to let the calf nurse for the first 3 days, but dairy farmer
has little idea of how much the calf is eating. More accurate methods of feeding milk are to use
nipple pail, nipple bottle or open pail. All the three are satisfactory provided they are kept clean.
The amount of colostrum fed the first days depends on the size and breed of the calf. A good rule
of thumb is to feed colostrum which is equal to about 6% of the calf’s weight. Example for Friesian
calf weighing 37 kgs (   Litresx 22.237
100
6 

8. Colostrum is generally fed for as long as the cows produce it and is about 3 days or six feedings.
After the 3 days calf can be fed on whole milk, milk replaces or sour colostrum. The calf then
receives a limited amount of whole milk until it’s weaned.
Weaning is the process of removing milk or milk products from calf’s diet. Calf receives dry feed
and water ration, most nutrient a calf is receiving come from grain therefore, it’s important to
ensure the grain meet all the nutritional needs of the calf and can be weaned when its taking 1- 1½
kg of dry feed per day.
Early weaning is important to a dairy farmer because it lowers calf raising costs, less dependence
on milk reduces chances of scours and helps calf rumen to develop sufficiently to begin digesting
forages and grain.
Its best to weigh young calves periodically to determine the growth of calves and thereby the
success of the feeding program and when calf’s age and weight are known, the young animals can
be compared to other calves.
Calf housing and hygiene
Housing facilities for calves should be planned to accommodate each developing stage of a calf
from its birth until it is ready to enter the milking herd. Housing provided must be suitable to
climate of a particular area and it should produce clean warm dry environment. Individual calf
pens provide effective separation for each calf and this prevents naval sucking and reduces the
spread of disease through facial or other direct contact, it also allows individual feeding and
ensures clear identification of each calf.
On the veterinary surgeons advisory visit the whole calf unit needs to be assessed to see how the
calves, people, food and water, urine and solid manure are moved within the buildings or yards.
As far as possible the crossing of pathways should be avoided. In particular, the movement of
contaminated material should be by the shortest and quickest route to a safe place to prevent it
being a further hazard. Feed should be used sequentially to avoid staleness and be kept in dry areas.
Adequate clean water is an obvious necessity and ensures they are always functioning correctly
and clean. Calf units should be avoided to by visitors and the use of separate staff for sick and
healthy groups should be practiced on possible especially where infectious infections are involved.
A proper washing facility for the staff on the sire helps promote good hygienic practices. However,

9. the principle of regular destocking and cleaning houses in the most important factor in breaking
the cycle of infection in calf houses finally, whoever, is ultimately responsible for the success of
the calf unit must ensure that facilities are used correctly and above rules discussed are adhered to
at all times.
For a sound healthy herd, calf management must be observed at all stages.
Kamadi Victor Bill- B.Sc. Animal Science
Project Officer-Food Security & Livelihoods, World Vision Kenya
Phone No. 0724025581, 0787681861
Email: kamadibill@yahoo.com, Victor-kamadi@wvi.org
Skype: bill.Kamadi