Dairy calf - right calf Right Start

Promote consistent delivery of best practise care for calves up to 12 weeks of age to ensure they have a good start and can reach their full potential. Giving calves a strong start in life through consistent care, skilled people, and safer systems.

Introduction

The first 12 weeks of a calf’s life are very important. The Right Start pillar aims to integrate best practice across the sector, promoting consistent standards, professional stockmanship, and improved health and welfare outcomes. This approach also directly improves profitability and strengthens the industry’s environmental credentials.

Early-life care shapes a calf’s future, influencing welfare, productivity, and disease resistance. Yet across the industry, calf care can vary significantly, with knock-on effects for growth, antibiotic use, and longer-term performance. Efficient calf rearing also has significant environmental and carbon benefits. Healthier, faster-growing calves reach slaughter weight sooner, reducing their overall methane emissions and the carbon footprint of the beef and dairy supply chains.

The Right Start strategy also aims to create a more consistent approach, one that respects on-farm realities while supporting science-led best practice.

Success means widely adopted Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), peer networks supporting learning, and a professional pathway for calf rearers.

Through collaboration and flexibility, we will help every calf get the right start it deserves.

Goal 1 Standardised and evidence-based advice to support husbandry and management decisions is available to calf rearers.

Actions

Create standard operating procedure templates outlining optimal management practices which can be tailored to the farm.

SOPs in practice

To bring structure and clarity to calf care, we aim to co-develop flexible SOPs for key areas such as colostrum management, housing, and nutrition. These downloadable templates will be evidence-based, yet adaptable for different farm systems.

Integration is essential. That’s why SOPs will align with training, vet-led advisory services, assurance schemes, and audit tools, ensuring the approach is rolled out throughout the supply chain. Vet and advisor involvement will help build trust, reinforce uptake, and support on-farm improvements. By reducing calf mortality and disease, these practices directly reduce veterinary costs and improve the value of each animal, boosting farm profitability.

Farmer input remains central. We will be designing these SOPs with producers, to make ‘the right way’ the easy way, providing a framework that promotes consistency without adding red tape.

Develop a peer network to share optimal management practices.

Peer learning and support

Real change is driven by farmers learning from each other. That is why we are supporting farmer-led discussion groups, on-farm mentoring, and local ‘Calf Champions’ who model best practice in calf care.

These peer networks will aim to help normalise shared standards, offer practical support, and ensure continuous improvement. By integrating learning into community structures, we can boost farmer confidence, support behavioural change, and ultimately raise the baseline of calf care across the industry. This leads to more efficient production, which in turn improves profitability through better feed conversion and faster growth.

To reinforce good practice, we will explore reward mechanisms that recognise and incentivise high-quality calf rearing. Recognition schemes can raise the profile of good stockmanship, encourage participation in training, and align with wider sustainability and welfare goals, including lower carbon emissions from more efficient production systems.

Actions

Collaborate with calf rearers and industry to develop a relevant and fit for purpose qualification pathway for calf stockmanship. 

Modular qualification pathway

Behind every thriving calf is a capable, attentive rearer, yet calf rearers often have limited training and career development routes.

We hope to address this by creating a nationally recognised, flexible qualification pathway, progressing from foundation through to advanced certification.

This modular framework allows for step-by-step skills development, with links to diplomas and higher education. Delivery will be blended, combining online learning with on-farm assessments, to make training as accessible as possible around busy farm schedules.

Co-designed with farmers, buyers, and academic partners, the aim is to professionalise calf care and help retain good people in the sector. This also increases profitability by producing higher-value animals and reducing staff turnover.

Accreditation, uptake & impact

Widespread uptake depends on trust, recognition, and support. That is why training will be delivered with vets and trusted advisors, reinforcing credibility.

To add value, we will look for qualifications to be supported by milk buyers and assurance schemes, with links to supply chain incentives. We are aiming for uptake to be encouraged through subsidies, grants, or support from buyers.

We also hope to capture and share real-world outcomes as more calves are reared with care and purpose and stronger staff retention to highlight the impact of professional stockmanship, including the environmental benefit of reduced feed wastage and improved resource efficiency alongside increased farm profitability.

Action

GB Calf Strategy bTB Subgroup to work with Defra and APHA to assess and evaluate C19 exemption TB test data, associated calf movements and risk factors in order to extend the age at which calves are exempt from TB testing from 42 to 90 days.

Extend the TB test exemption to 90 days

Current TB testing regulations mean calves must be tested before movement if they are over 42 days old. This encourages early sales and can compromise growth and welfare.

We will be working with Defra and APHA to develop a risk-based matrix to support extending the exemption to 90 days. This would allow calves to be weaned and grouped more appropriately, reducing stress and improving resilience.

It would also reduce on-farm risk for handlers during testing and lower costs for producers and regulators alike. Aligning welfare with disease control, this change would benefit animals, people, and the system overall, and directly increase profitability by helping to maximise calf growth potential and value.

right start green text

Conclusion

Getting the right start matters. By integrating best practice, supporting skilled rearers, and removing barriers to good calf care, we can build a stronger, more sustainable, and more profitable future for the sector. Better growth rates and lower mortality rates in calves lead to a more efficient system, which translates to a smaller environmental footprint per kilogram of meat or litre of milk, and higher financial returns for farmers.

The Right Start Pillar is led by: Innovation for Agriculture – Visit the Calf Action Network

Innovation for Agriculture logo