Owl Farm case study - Purposeful lives for calves

This page sets out how Owl Farm cares for newborn calves and works to reduce the number of bobby calves it sends off the farm. Every calf gets 2 litres of gold colostrum on arrival and again that afternoon, and the farm tests blood protein levels each year to check calves are getting enough antibody protection, reaching 80% and 83% in the last two seasons reported.

A breeding strategy combining sexed semen with dairy beef sires, chosen using traits such as birth weight, gestation length and carcass weight, has lifted the share of calves going on to a purposeful life from 34% in 2018 to 77% in 2024. The farm sells dairy beef calves such as Charolais crosses to local rearers at four days old, rather than sending them off as bobbies.

^{Photo: “Quadruplet calves on farm at Ngakuru, 1966” by Photographer W.O. (Archives New Zealand), licensed for reuse under CC BY 2.0}