21 Oct 2020
Researchers at Scotland’s Rural College to look into system where calves are kept with their mothers for up to five months.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
Researchers at Scotland’s Rural College are working with The Ethical Dairy to learn more about cow-with-calf dairy systems.
Researchers are looking for dairy farmers to take part in a project promoting calves to be kept with mothers for longer – and is surveying existing ones currently operating the policy.
The survey is part of a Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) project, “Keeping cow with calf: bringing innovation to dairying in Scotland”, which is aiming to find out people’s motivations and reservations about operating the system.
Dairy calves are traditionally separated from their dams in the first 24 hours post-birth, but SRUC wants to investigate the system, where calves remain with their mothers for up to five months.
The project is based around one of three Scottish farms running the cow-with-calf concept.
With funding from the Scotland Rural Development Programme Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund, SRUC hopes to create a network of farmers interested in operating cow-with-calf dairy systems.
SRUC’s project wants to:
The survey, which is open until the end of the year, will help researchers build their evidence base and gauge what support farmers would need moving forward.
Vets can direct farmers to the survey online now.
