Getting the best price in a busy calving season

We are in the middle of the calving period and calves are in very strong demand. Prices are significantly higher than last year — which means greater attention needs to be paid to getting them off to the best start possible.

If you sell young calves, apart from the breed and sex, the animal’s appearance will have a huge influence on the sale price. Poorly done calves never command top prices.

A calf is not born with the rumen function of older animals, so stimulating the rumen from an early age will set it up for the rest of its life. Only the calf’s true stomach (abomasum) functions in the early stage of life, so developing the rumen as early as possible by including the correct long fibre and concentrate will reduce the amount of whole milk or replacer required up to weaning.