Cindy Lucas bought a greenfield farm at Bruthen, in East Gippsland, Victoria, to develop her calf raising business.
A Western Australian mine worker who grew up in South Australia has taken her experience in logistics and a voluntary redundancy package and invested it in developing a dairy agribusiness in Gippsland, Victoria.
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Cindy Lucas has turned dairy calf raising into a full-time business, spreading contract heifer calf rearing across the year.
Cindy bought a greenfield farm at Bruthen a few years ago and fitted it out with shedding and paddocks to support her dream of a contract calf rearing business in Gippsland.
Her business originated in Mudgegonga from a chance conversation with a farmer who only had 14.5ha acres available, after most of the 445ha was burned in a fire.
“Their dry cows were being parked and they were managing the milking herd, but they didn’t have options for their calves,” Cindy said.
Record keeping is critical to remaining on top of animal health and welfare.
“That’s how my calf-rearing career started.”
Her first year was feeding calves for that particular dairy farm.
Word of mouth spread, and a second dairy farmer sent calves to Cindy to be raised.
Cindy Lucas (centre) has built a large shed that houses all the machinery she needs to use in her calf rearing business.
Within two years, she was rearing 600 heifer calves a year, on contract, for a number of farms – taking them on at seven days old and managing animal health and welfare needs.
Curtains filter the north sun into the runs of young calves, helping achieve optimal health conditions.
Seeking a tree change, Cindy and her husband moved south and bought a 40ha farm at Bruthen, in East Gippsland, to develop as a new greenfield site to raise calves.
The farm is on steeply undulating country, zoned for farming, and surrounded by bush.
An existing small house provides personal and office space.
Cindy has invested in a large shed and silos near the entrance to the farm.
The silos near the main road allow for efficient unloading of grain.
The shed enables her to harvest rainwater, and Cindy stores all her machinery undercover.
Calves begin in undercover pens, in groups, with access to outdoor runs, hay, grain and water.
This includes a milk trailer, and machinery to mill the grain.
Cindy uses a drill to mix the milk powder with the harvested rainwater, then tows that to the calf paddocks and pens.
She also heats water at the shed and uses that and an alkaline cleaner to clean the milk mixing and feeding apparatus.
“With milk, you’re always going to end up with a biofilm left in your equipment and the risk of bacteria growing,” Cindy said.
“I use hot water to flush everything every time it’s used, then I use an alkaline cleaner about once a week, so I can flush all the extra biofilm off.”
When the calves first arrive, they go into group pens in a large shed, with outside access.
Then they progress into small outside paddocks with individual sheds, where the calves can also graze as well as access ad hoc water, grain and hay.
“When calves arrive on my farm, they usually arrive after a three-hour trip, so I give them things like probiotics and electrolytes, and different feed options,” Cindy said.
“Then they’re straight onto once-a-day feeding, using milk powder.
“In my system, the calves start early grain consumption and early rumen development.
“I’m weaning by around the six-week mark here.
“By the time calves here are 12 weeks old, they’re weaned, disbudded (if it’s necessary), and vaccinated and drenched.
Calves arrive on farm at seven days old and leave at 12 weeks old, weaned, disbudded, vaccinated and drenched.
“I weigh regularly, so I’ve got a record of the calves.”
Cindy uses an organic sanitiser to keep on top of cleaning in the calf shed, and applies a natural zeolite to the bedding.
Wood chip bedding in the shed is clean for each shipment of calves, and topped up during their duration.
“I spray all the walls, and the ground, between calf shipments,” Cindy said.
“Layout is very important in calf sheds. Air flow and air exchange reduces your ammonia levels, and I use curtains to filter the north sun into pens.”
The large shed that Cindy has built for the calf pens also enables her to harvest rainwater for calves, and it is gravity-fed into troughs in the pens and the paddocks.
The calf pens have 20-metre runs outside the shed, and the calves have free access to these areas.
“I’m not a fan of individual housing,” Cindy said.
“I think there’s a minimum number of calves that should be housed together for comfort and minimising any stress aspect.
“They’re a herd animal. I give them somewhere to live that’s warm and dry and safe.
“And they have free choice all the time to feed and drinking water.”
In the outside paddocks, calves are housed in groups of 20.
“This section out the back of the farm is a really lovely environment for raising calves,” Cindy said.
Sick calves are isolated into individual pens for the length of time it takes for them to recover, then introduced back into the herd.
When the calves are about three months old, they return to their owners.
As well as rearing calves for individual farmers, Cindy raises Friesian-Wagyu cross heifers for Dairy Beef Alliance.
She turns these Friesian-Wagyu heifers off at 100kg.
“I started off this year with 96 calves from one farmer, and I’ve got another 100 calves booked in from another farm,” Cindy said.
