Project details
Status: Completed
At a glance
- Developing a market for surplus calves to be reared for the beef production chain in Australia presents a potential alternative source of income for dairy farmers while also addressing persistent welfare concerns.
- An emerging market for non-replacement dairy calves requires that animals are 100% grass fed.
- This project assessed the growth and health of dairy-beef crossbred calves reared on a commercially available grain-free calf starter in comparison to a traditional grain-based starter.
- Findings from this research suggest no difference between grain-free (faba bean) and traditional grain based starter.
What is the challenge?
The dairy industry is prioritising sustainable beef pathways for non-replacement dairy calves (NRDCs). One option currently available to dairy farms is to raise NRDC's for grassfed beef markets. A challenge in achieving this is that to meet this raising claim, calves cannot be fed cereal grains or their by-products.
Conventional dairy calf rearing systems rely on the early intake of cereal grain-based calf starters to accelerate rumen development and facilitate early weaning.
To date, little work has investigated the effects of a grain-free diet on pre- and post-weaning growth and development of dairy beef calves. This work will support dairy beef producers to make informed decisions about which finishing pathways will deliver the best outcomes for their animals, and value for their businesses.
What are we doing?
Senior Research Fellow Dr Megan Verdon, in collaboration with Greenham and Dairy Australia, assessed the growth of dairy beef calves raised on a grain-free starter (faba bean based pellets) in comparison to a traditional cereal grain-based starter.
Sixty Speckle Park x Holstein calves were feed either grain-free or grain-based (control group) calf starter in their rations from 3 days of age to 16 weeks. The trial was conducted at TIA's Dairy Research Facility at Elliott in North-West Tasmania.
Calves were weighed fortnightly and automatic feeders recorded the amount of milk and starter consumed by individual calves each day.
What did we find?
- The feeding cost until weaning for grain-free calves was $367.50 per calf.
- The feeding cost until weaning for control calves was $374.80 per calf.
- There was no difference between control and grain-free treatments for pre-weaning growth.