Keeping Cow with Calf
The project seeks to establish evidence based information on cow-with-calf dairying systems.
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Keeping Cow with Calf - Bringing Innovation to Dairying In Scotland is an SRDP Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF) project, jointly funded by the Scottish Government and the European Union, and led by SRUC.
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Project key objectives
- Establishing a network for those interested in cow-with-calf systems, including farmers, industry and the wider dairy sector.
- Interviews with those running a cow-with-calf system, to understand positives and negatives of the system and a survey to capture wider dairy sector feedback.
- Economic analysis of the cow-with-calf system at a farm level; investigating calf growth, cow longevity, animal health and more.
- Benchmarking of the cow-with-calf system; investigating how it performs in terms of human, animal, environmental and financial health.
- Analysing business models and marketing options for cow-with-calf dairy products, including gathering processor opinion.
- Student projects exploring various aspects of the system; maternal investment, reasons for variation in yields across lactations and more.
- Producing a prospectus of the cow-with-calf model; highlighting results gathered during the project - aimed at those considering conversion, the wider dairy industry and supporters.
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