AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Research carried out at the Outeniqua Research Farm of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture has found that it is unnecessary to give young dairy calves milk twice a day.
Once is enough, and in fact may even benefit the animals.
Bertus Myburgh, who conducted the study in partial fulfilment of his master’s degree in animal sciences at Nelson Mandela University, says dairy farmers in the Southern Cape region have traditionally given their calves milk twice a day, reasoning that giving calves too much milk at a time is bad for their digestive systems.
However, to save on labour costs, the Outeniqua Research Farm has been giving its calves milk once a day for years, and has found this to be an effective way to rear them. But when Myburgh tried to persuade dairy farmers in the region to do the same, they dismissed it as “not a good idea”.
