Farmers who rear calves on automatic feeders are being advised to use them correctly or risk creating a cycle of infection that compromises health and performance.

Using a once a day feed programme has the benefit of saving hugely on labour without any additional cost of investment.

A once-a-day calf feeding system is allowing a premier Ayrshire breeder to devote more time to keeping his heifer replacements in tip-top health. Six years ago, they introduced Shine- Once- a- Day milk replacer to calves at 28 days old. The system has been so successful that the family say there is no going back.

Cath Ratcliffe moved to West Webbery Farm, Bideford, North Devon in 2013 to enable them to expand their 180 cow herd and to keep their own youngstock as it had previously been a flying herd.

A young farmer’s vision for improving calf performance on his family’s dairy farm by changing the feeding system from cow’s milk to a once-a-day milk replacer lives on after his tragic death.

The flexibility of a once-a-day calf feeding system has allowed a Co. Clare agricultural contracting business to expand into calf rearing, increasing numbers year on year to 250.

Jerry Moloney, who runs a herd of 98 pedigree Holsteins at Nenagh, Co Tipperary, first used Shine Once-A-Day to reduce time and labour in feeding his heifer replacements.

Practical constraints which had prevented a dairy farmer from rearing milk-fed calves at an off-lying site have been overcome with the introduction of Shine Once-a-Day milk replacer.