Optimising dairy calf and heifer performance

Calf health and welfare came under the spotlight at last week’s Dairy Research Partnership online conference, which saw UK researchers sharing the outcomes of a range of projects. Dr David Bell, research associate at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), looked at the impact of early life thermal environment on calf performance. Their first challenge looked at calves being exposed to temperatures far lower than in the uterus. Bell talked about lower critical temperatures – the point when the