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Buitelaar has launched a major new research trial at Long Lane Development Farm to investigate whether the strategic use of sodium salicylate can improve calf health and lifetime performance in dairy-beef systems.
Supported through the ADOPT programme, the project will follow 725 dairy-beef calves from arrival through to finishing and processing, generating practical evidence to help farmers, vets and advisers better understand when and how sodium salicylate may be most effectively used.
The project is being led by James Watson, Group Sustainability Lead at Buitelaar, working alongside Synergy Farm Health, the Royal Veterinary College and independent consultant Marc Jones.
For Buitelaar, the trial reflects a wider commitment to testing ideas under real commercial conditions and turning research into practical knowledge that can be used on farm.
Sodium salicylate is an anti-inflammatory that has been used in calf-rearing systems in a variety of ways, but there is currently limited evidence around the most effective timing of supplementation.
Some systems use it when calves first arrive at a rearing unit, while others introduce it later. The aim of this trial is to compare those approaches and understand whether timing influences calf health and performance.
James explains:
“People have been trying sodium salicylate in different ways for years. You speak to one person, and they’ll tell you to give it on arrival. Someone else says day 10, someone else does something completely different.
“There hasn’t been much evidence so far to say what’s right, and we want to find out what actually works under commercial conditions.”
The calves taking part in the trial will be allocated to one of four groups:
♦ sodium salicylate on arrival
♦ sodium salicylate from day 10
♦ sodium salicylate at both periods
♦ no sodium salicylate supplementation
Researchers will then compare health and performance across the groups.
A key strength of the project is its scale and duration.
Rather than looking only at short-term calf health, the animals will be followed throughout the full production cycle.
At Long Lane Development Farm, the research team will monitor measures including:
♦ antibiotic treatments
♦ daily liveweight gain
♦ lung health using ultrasound scanning
Once calves leave the rearing stage, they will continue to be monitored through growing and finishing, with lifetime growth and carcass performance recorded through to processing.
This is made possible by Buitelaar’s integrated dairy-beef supply chain, which allows us to follow animals beyond the calf-rearing unit and investigate whether early-life interventions have an impact later in life.
That longer-term view is particularly important to us. A change in management during the first few weeks of life may influence far more than immediate calf health, and this trial is designed to help us understand whether any effects carry through the wider system.
The trial centres on the period following calves’ arrival at the rearing unit.
Arrival is a significant transition point. Calves are adapting to a new environment, new routines and often a new social group, making this an important time from a health and management perspective.
Rachel Hayton, Research Lead at Synergy Farm Health and trial facilitator, explains:
“Arrival at a rearing unit is an important transition point for calves. They are adapting to a new environment, new routines and, in many cases, a new group.
Understanding how we can best support calf health through that period is therefore really valuable.”
The team will use lung ultrasound scanning alongside production and health data to provide an objective assessment of respiratory health.
Rachel adds:
“Sodium salicylate is an anti-inflammatory, so the question is whether using it strategically at particular points during the rearing period can improve health and performance.
This study gives us the opportunity to answer that question using objective measures, including lung ultrasound scanning, alongside production data collected throughout the animals’ lives.”
The trial is being carried out at Long Lane Development Farm in Somerset, Buitelaar’s dedicated research and demonstration farm.
Around 8,200 calves are reared at Long Lane each year, giving us the scale to carry out trials in genuine commercial conditions.
That practical relevance is fundamental to the way we approach research.
James says:
“Everything we trial at Long Lane Development Farm has to be commercially viable.
It’s all very well saying something works for 10 calves or with expensive technology. But we don’t want anyone visiting the farm thinking, ‘I can’t do that on my own farm.’
If we’re going to test something, it has to be practical and scalable.”
That principle sits at the heart of our research programme: testing interventions at a scale that reflects the realities farmers and calf rearers face every day.
The project is supported through ADOPT – Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies, Defra’s farmer-led innovation programme delivered by Innovate UK.
ADOPT supports practical on-farm trials that bring farmers, researchers, vets and advisers together to test new ideas in commercial conditions.
For this project, that collaboration brings together Buitelaar’s commercial calf-rearing experience with veterinary and academic expertise.
James says the support has made it possible to carry out a trial with the scale and depth needed to produce meaningful evidence.
“A trial like this involves a huge amount of work behind the scenes.
We’re collecting detailed health and performance data right through to slaughter, so in a couple of years’ time we’ll have a really valuable body of evidence for the industry.
The support available through ADOPT has made that possible by bringing together the right expertise and enabling us to collect the depth of information needed to produce evidence that the whole industry can have confidence in.”
The trial will run for two years, with findings shared once the project concludes.
Our aim is not to assume what the outcome will be, but to build a stronger evidence base around a question that farmers and vets are already asking.
By following calves from arrival right through to processing, we hope the project will provide a clearer understanding of whether strategic sodium salicylate use influences calf health, growth and lifetime performance, and whether one protocol offers greater benefit than another.
For Buitelaar, that is exactly what research at Long Lane Development Farm should do: take a practical industry question, test it properly under commercial conditions and share what we learn.
