What to expect from the dairy industry’s bobby calf road map

A road map for the management of bobby calves is on track to be released. This is what producers can expect.

The dairy industry is on track to have a road map for bobby calf management by the end of the year.

A road map for the management of bobby calves is on track to be released later this year.

While the Australian Dairy Industry Surplus Calves Policy Task Force wound up in September 2022, the recommendations it made to the Australian Dairy Farmers national council are being worked through.

They included the goal of all dairy calvesentering a valued market chain by 2035 as well as no on-farm routine euthanasia of viable calves unless there was no other option

National figures collected by Dairy Australia in 2022 showed 28 per cent of all calves nationally were either sold in bobby calf markets or were euthanised or died.

A spokesman for Dairy Australia said the organisation had invested in the development of the Australian Calf Roadmap.
“This began development in July 2023, and is on track to be launched in late 2024,” the spokesman said.

The development of the road map was outsourced to Schuster Consulting with oversight from a reference group made up of dairy farmer representatives, as well as Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Meat Industry Council, the Australian Dairy Products Federation as well as Dairy Australia.

“The roadmap focuses on working with the beef and dairy supply chains to build trust and commitment to enable a beef from dairy industry which is sustainable socially, financially and environmentally,” the spokesman said.

“Upon presentation of their recommendations, the task force was wound up but the industry’s work around surplus calves is ongoing as we develop the Australian Calf Roadmap.”

The first phase of the Roadmap development focused on identifying challenges, barriers and opportunities from the supply chain perspective, and the second phase, which has just started, is focused on building commitments from beef and dairy stakeholders for the roadmap.

DA said despite the drop in beef prices, farmers were choosing to divert a growing portion of their calves away from early life euthanasia and slaughter into the dairy beef chain.

“This can be achieved through tools like sexed semen,improved heat detection, use of genomic testing to identify their best cows to retain heifers from, and even just using a beef mop up bull,” the spokesman said.

But the road map is also balancing the barriers beyond breeding. These include on-farm challenges such as infrastructure and labour to raise the calves, and supply chain issues in finding a valued market for the animals.