The Queen of Calves Nutrition Programme grows premuim herd replacements that outperform the average calf on liveweight, skeletal growth, days to weaning, milk production, productivity and longevity.
The health of our Queen of Calves-raised calves and the outstanding growth to weaning is well supported by the science and research, by the on-farm data analysis and many documented on-farm interviews. We can confidently conclude that calves raised on our nutrition programme have proven to:
- Be more contented, happier (behaviour/manner/attitude) and healthier animals (less recorded sickness).
- Grow faster and be on average 11 kilograms bigger than their peers at weaning.
- Require 30% less energy than traditionally reared calves to achieve weaning weight.
- Have fewer setbacks when entering the herd.
- In addition, initial measurements suggest they produce around 30% less methane.
Bell-Booth calf growth research work has compared growth rates between treated and untreated animals in a retrospective 5-year comparison of milk production, fertility and survivability with Massey University and found 55% of the Queen of Calves-raised cows were still productive members of the herd at the end of the 5th lactation - while the control and cohort cows had all exited the farm as a consequence of infertility, mastitis or lameness.
