Driving down dairy calf mortality rates in the UK

Researchers have been attempting to find out why the UK’s rate of calf mortality remains stubbornly high despite the plethora of best practice information available to the sector. Research shows that perinatal calf mortality worldwide is between 2.4% and 9.7% with one UK paper estimating mortality to be 7.9% and an Irish study finding average perinatal mortality to be 4.3%. A further 6% of UK dairy calves were found to die within 3 months of birth. Scientists at the Royal Veterinary College