Former dairy farmer Ashley Dempster had introduced nearly 100 dairy cows from a local dispersal sale onto his farm in an effort to return to the dairy profession.
The girls have proved themselves good additions but came with an underlying virus called Cryptosporidiosis parvum which was wiping out nearly all the calves born.
“I didn’t know what it was, I’d never seen it before,” Mr Dempster said.
“It’s called crypto, like I’m infected with a damn bitcoin . . . it would hit the calves at around two weeks of age and they were basically shitting themselves to death.”
Crypto is a high mortality virus with no clear cure. It causes diarrhea in calves and is passed through contact with infected faeces.
Much like the similar parvovirus in dogs, the virus can survive in the ground for months.
Mr Dempster was able to work with vets and his milk supplier, ACM, to identify the virus and act quickly.
His quarantine facility has three wings — A, B and C — and every pen is labelled with an ID number.
“You can virtually walk past them and monitor them, like B11 here had a shot this morning, a pick-me-up. He is not really perky,” Mr Dempster said.
“Thankfully this quarantine system has nearly eliminated the disease. Before the calves were in groups of five or six with the big teat bars. We had to go and buy individual feeders for disease control.”
The isolation facility is constructed from hay pallets, and hay tarps have been used to provide shade and rain protection.
“We are lucky I had so many pallets around and we’re lucky we’ve got Kim, our worker, who’s been doing a fantastic job with them,” Mr Dempster said.
“We are feeding them three times a day, which is a fair job. Two litres of milk, a litre of electrolytes, then another two litres of milk.”
Since setting up the intensive quarantine wards, nearly all the remaining calves — about 40 — are rapidly regaining strength.
“Once it is up and running this rearing method is actually easier because you put the individual feeder over and when we come back in half an hour they have either drank it or they haven’t,” Mr Dempster said.
Mr Dempster said ACM’s high level of support while he was getting the farm back into fighting form had been indispensable.
“Sue Milne from ACM has been a huge help too, she used to be a calf rearing specialist,” he said.
“Milk price is one thing, but ACM have helped us so much, from getting the dairy licence and to everything happening here.”
Mr Dempster said he would be practising isolated calf rearing this year and next in an effort to completely eliminate crypto from the herd and the soil.
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