Calf Care Around The World: Tim Williams - Australia

As we travel around the world, we will make a stop in Australia! Tim Williams gives us an idea of what the calf industry is like down under.

Tim was born and raised on a pig farm. His family pig farm was in a dairy area and being Tim didn’t have much interest in the pigs he gravitated towards the cows. Tim obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Science and had the opportunity to travel widely around the world working in the dairy industry in South Africa, the U.K., Ireland, Europe and the United States. Tim eventually returned to Australia and managed a larger family-owned dairy farm and then share milking arrangement. In 2009 he made a career change and started his own dairy agronomy & nutrition consulting business, Agrimilk Consulting, servicing farms in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Q: Tim, give us some insight into the dairy industry in Australia.

A: We have various types of dairy systems here. I live in New South Wales, and I service dairies in New South Wales and Victoria. The national herd totals about 1.5 million cows.

• Low input grazing with supplemental concentrates fed in the milking parlour (70%-80% pasture 20%-30% concentrate).
• Medium input grazing with supplemental concentrates fed in the milking parlour (50-60% pasture, silage & hay and 40%-50% concentrates).
• High density grazing with silage or hay & supplemental concentrates fed in the milking parlour or through a mixing wagon (30% pasture 20% silage and 50% concentrates).
• About 2%-3% of the industry is intensively fed with a total mixed ration (TMR) year-round similar to many farms in the United States and cattle housed. However, as herd size increases more farms move in this direction.
• The bulk of the industry is made of pasture-based Mum and Dad run farms of about 300 cows. 

Q: What does calf rearing look like in Australia?

A: It’s mostly done in house.There are a few larger calf ranches, but percentage wise in the industry it would be insignificant. Mostly each farm raises their own, and the Mum oversees the calves. There has been some increasing use of robotic feeders. Lely, DeLeval, and GEA auto-feeders are becoming common here.

Calves are typically fed 4-8 liters per day of whole milk or milk replacer, but it all depends upon the farm. Weaning also varies from farm to farm but is usually somewhere between 50-80 days of age.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges faced in calf rearing in Australia?

A: Well, it will come around to pathogens and weather conditions. Crypto is a challenge at certain times. Salmonella is a challenge at certain times. E. Coli and Rota Virus, we have all the same pathogen challenges as other places. To overcome the pathogen challenges I have been utilizing dry Surveillance in the milk replacer, and just about 2 months ago the liquid Surveillance became available here as well.

Most of the farms here are calving out in the open. Not many farms calve cows in a maternity barn. We have health challenges because calves will pick up pathogens from the environment as soon as they hit the ground. Especially in bad weather. Also, the amount of time before the calf gets colostrum tends to be longer because they calve outdoors. Most of the farms will have a designated calving paddock that is 1-2 ha in size.Cows are selected twice per month to move from the far-off dry paddock to the close-up paddock to receive their close up diet.

In Australia farms will tend block calve, where they calve out about 60% of the herd in the autumn and about 40% of the herd in the spring. But that’s not everywhere, it really depends on the area they are in. About two-thirds of my clients’ block calve. There are lots of year-round calvers as well.  

Outdoor environmental challenges are just really hard on calves here with the outdoor calving. Especially when we calve in July and August, our winter months. We don’t have snow, but it gets wet and windy during those months and it’s tough on newborn calves.

Q: What is labour availability like in Australia.

A: Most of the farms are family run, so it’s the Mum or Dad doing the work or brothers, sisters and cousins. There are often 1-2 employees available to help with the work depending on the size of the operation. There is one person responsible for the calf program, usually the Mum, but all the work is shared around with everyone. The larger farms tend to use automated feeders.

Mob feeders are often common on larger farms too. They are on a trailer and have 60-80 teats. The idea is to drive it into the paddock with the calves and run away as fast as you can as the calves will mob the trailer to get their milk.

Q: What is the most common way to house calves in Australia.

A: Typically, calves are raised indoors during the milk feeding phase, and move outside after they are weaned.

Q: What ventilation systems are common in calf barns in Australia?

A: Respiratory illness is always a challenge. You can always hear a wheeze or a cough when you go in. I would say within the last 10 years the designs have gotten better. Before that the designs were very poor, and too enclosed. My client with the best ventilation is in the sub- tropics of Australia. He has a shed with a one-meter gap on the walls from the roof and a one-meter overhang on each side of the roof. His shed is over 20 years old, and he has no respiratory issues. His wife raises all his calves, and they are phenomenal. The Herd is based on the Australian Illawarra Shorthorn Australia’s own dairy cow bred from a mix of Dairy shorthorns, Long Horns & Ayrshires in the early 1800’s in the Illawarra region on the NSW south coast. Although now they use some red Holstein & Scandinavian red cattle as well in the breeding program.

Q: What dairy cattle breeds are most common in Australia?

A: The bulk of cattle milked here are Holstein, Jersey, and crossbreds. There are a few Guernsey and Brown Swiss cattle, and some Fleckvieh herds.

Q: What is your calf starter like?

A:  We start calves on calf starter at about 5-7 days of age. Typically, the calf starter is pelletized and 22% protein or a Muesli, it’s a roasted and steamed grain. I utilize Surveillance in my starter packs as well.

Q: What are your growth goals?

A: Well, we try to get 0.7-0.9 kg/day from birth to calving (breed dependent).  We try to get 90% of mature weight at calving, and we are normally joining (breeding) at 50-55% of mature weight. Once calves are weaned, they go on a weaner ration and then onto pasture.  When they go onto pasture, they always have a little setback on growth. A lot depends on the season.  You can have a great growth rate if the season’s good, or not so good if the grass is short and then they must go to supplement. The heifer job here needs a lot of work. We are getting better at it, but it’s not as specialized as it is in the US.

Thank you, Tim, for taking the time to share with us how things are done in the land down under!  If you would like to hear more from Tim, you can follow him on Facebook at Agrimilk Consulting Pty Ltd | Facebook.

Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.