Document type: news item from Teagasc (Ireland)
Author: Teagasc
Preview: Announced as part of the 2023 DAFM Thematic Research Call, funding has been provided to WELCalf - a research project with the overall objective of improving the health and welfare of calves born on dairy farms.
Led by Dr Emer Kennedy, Senior Researcher in Teagasc Moorepark, the collaborative project between Teagasc, University College Dublin and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has been awarded funding and will focus on calves that remain on their farm of origin, move to beef farms and those which travel to other EU member states.
This research will focus on five key areas. Firstly, an application to collect real-time, animal level metrics relating to key welfare traits (e.g. calf vigour, illness) will be developed. This information will be used to create a feedback loop to help farmers identify the risk factors associated with poor health and welfare.
Secondly, researchers will visit both dairy and dairy calf-to-beef farms to determine their management practices and facilities, the breeding policies of dairy farmers and the requirements of dairy calf-to-beef farmers to encourage the purchasing of calves.
A 'Calf Health Toolkit' will also be developed and implemented on farms. The success of such will be assessed to determine its suitability for national rollout. Additionally, the research aims to determine the risk factors associated with summer scour syndrome.
In terms of intra-community trade, the project will investigate the health and welfare status of unweaned dairy calves undergoing long-distance transportation by road/ferry and road/air to continental Europe, while also developing a model to determine the emissions costs of same.
To maximise the impact of this research, the sharing of results will begin from an early stage. Additionally, the knowledge outcomes will inform policy, change practice, drive more research and be used for education purposes. Furthermore, the technologies developed during the course of this project can be used beyond the lifetime of this project to continue to provide ways of improving calf welfare.
