Calf Rearing BAG207

Distance Education Course -Learn Calf Rearing through online study

Course Aims:

Successful completion of this course/module will develop your ability to independently analyse and make decisions about the management requirements of calf rearing.

Comment from one of our Calf Rearing students:   "I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to raise calves!!"     R. Beitlich

Lesson Structure

There are 7 lessons in this course:

Lesson1 : Calving and Culling

 

• Introduction
• Research into raising dairy calves
• Principles of good calf rearing
• Pre-calving management
• Managing the cow for a healthy calf
• Colostrum management
• Calf selection
• Estimated Breeding Value (EBV)
• Culling
• Assessing calves for suitability in a rearing system

Lesson 2: Calving Management

• The birth of a calf
• Signs that the birth is close
• Stages in a normal birth
• Calving problems
• Important points
• Abnormal presentations
• The calf at birth
• Colostrum
• Stress and pathogen exposure
• Managing stress
• Managing pathogen exposure
• The calf digestive tract
• Rumen development
• Bacteria
• Liquid in the rumen
• Outflows of rumen materials
• Absorptive qualities
• Substrate (Dry feed Intake)

Lesson 3: Calf Health Management

• Overview
• Common calf diseases
• Scours
• Coccidiosis
• Round Worm Scours
• Lung worm
• Calf diptheria
• Pneumonia
• Clostridial Disease
• salmonella
• Navel and joint ill
• Stress and the young calf
• Transport stress
• Feeding stress
• Heat and cold

Lesson 4: Calf Rearing Systems

• Birth to weaning
• Natural Systems of Calf Rearing
• Single suckling
• Multiple suckling
• Foster suckling
• Race suckling
• Early weaning
• Artificial systems of calf rearing
• Teaching the calf to drink
• A basic Feeding program
• Milk Substitute
• Common calf rearing systems
• Rearing calves at grass
• Five and a half day system
• Once a day system
• Cold milk system
• Acidified milk replacers
• Mildly acidic milk replacers
• Strongly acidic milk replacers
• Milk-fed veal production

Lesson 5: Calf Housing

• Ventilation
• Isolation
• Comfort
• Economy
• Calf Pens
• Metal crates
• The calf hutch

Lesson 6: Weaning

• Stress at weaning
• General weaning transition strategies
• Providing water
• Weaning at twelve and eight weeks
• Weaning at five weeks
• Weaning at four weeks

Lesson 7: Post-weaning

• Post weaning period
• Calf husbandry practices
• Reducing surgical stress
• Cattle identification
• Castration
• Bloodless castration
• Surgical Castration
• Dehorning
• When to dehorn
• Dehorning instruments and equipment
• Tetanus
• Vaccination and Worming

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Select calves for specified purposes, including dairy stock, and breeding stock.
• Explain the methods of managing calving operations on a farm.
• Explain the diagnosis of common health problems which may occur in calves.
• Explain different techniques of calf rearing.
• Explain the housing requirements of calves in an animal production situation.
• Explain the procedures for weaning calves in an commercial situation.
• Explain the post-weaning requirements of calves, in a commercial situation.

What You Will Do

• Explain the phenotype factors related to the selection of calves.
• Explain the genotype factors related to the selection of calves.
• Write a checklist of criteria for selecting calves for dairying.
• Explain how breeding can assist in obtaining calves for three different specified purposes.
• Describe the different stages in the normal birth of a calf.
• Explain the process of calving, in response to either observations of a calf being born, or the viewing of a video of a calf being born.
• Explain at least five problems that can occur during calving, on a typical property in the learner's locality.
• Analyse two case studies of problematic calving incidents.
• List at least four methods for over-coming specified calving problems.
• List the common health problems which can occur with calves in the learner's locality.
• Describe the symptoms of at least three common calf diseases, including scouring.
• Explain the possible effects of stress on a calf.
• Explain an appropriate treatment for at least three common calf diseases, including scouring.
• Develop guidelines for stock culling, for a specified property.
• Analyse data in a case study in order to diagnose the health problems of a calf.
• Report on an examination of the condition of a calf inspected by the learner.
• Describe calf husbandry techniques observed by the learner, including:
  • Earmarking
  • Castration
  • Dehorning
  • Branding
  • Tattooing
  • Drenching
• Compare natural calf rearing techniques with artificial calf rearing techniques.
• Determine the appropriate method of calf rearing for a specified property.
• List the criteria which need to be satisfied in the design of calf housing facilities, in the learner's locality.
• Compare the suitability of different building materials for calf housing facilities, in different climates.
• Analyse calf housing facilities on a specified property in order to determine the appropriateness of their design.
• Prepare a design for a calf housing facility, including:
  • A sketch/concept plan
  • A description of materials
  • An estimate of cost
• Explain the stages of weaning a calf on a property with which the learner is familiar.
• List the possible problems which may arise in weaning calves.
• Recommend suitable treatments for the weaning problems.
• Explain the stages of post weaning for a normal calf on a property with which the learner is familiar.
• List the problems which may arise with calves during the post-weaning period.
• Explain any variations that may be applied to the procedure of post-weaning a calf.

Why Choose This Course

• Course notes and materials are unique (written by our staff) and up to date (most revised annually) –our graduates are more up to date with what they learn than many other institutions.
• We don’t just present you with information; we also work to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field.
• Start any time, study at your own pace, study from anywhere
• Don’t waste time and money traveling to and from classes
• More choices in your assignment work –courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you.
• Tutors more accessible than many colleges – academics are hard at work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day, and answering individual queries from students are top priority and always attended to within a day –often within an hour.
• Be treated like an individual –don’t get lost in a crowd of other students. Our tutors interact with you one to one.
• Extra help at no extra cost where needed.. If you find a task you can’t do, we will help you through it or give you another option.
• Support after graduation –We will advise on getting work, starting a business, putting a CV together. We will promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Any graduate who asks will be helped.

How You Study

• When you enroll, we send you an email that explains it all.
• You are given a short orientation video to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
• You are either given access to your course online, or sent a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
• You work through lessons one by one. Each lesson has at least four parts:
• An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
• Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
• Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
• Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
• Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
• You are given access to and encouraged to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
• You are provided with a "student manual" which you can refer to if and when needed. It provides a quick solution to most problems that might occur (some people never need to use this; but if you are studying late at night & have a problem, the manual provides a first port of call that can often get you moving again).

Recognition

• ACS is known and highly respected internationally: by employers and academics alike:
• Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
• ACS has been training people around the world since 1979
• Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
• Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
• A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.