Lorcan McCabe milks around 85 cows outside Bailieborough in Co. Cavan.

Each year, he produces a strong crop of calves by breeding primarily to Belgian Blue, alongside a Longhorn bull that runs with the heifers before coming back to serve the cows.

The system leaves him with a mixture of Belgian Blue calves and Longhorn calves, as well as a handful of Limousin and Angus.

And given the value of quality dairy beef calves like Lorcan's over the last year, the importance of shielding them from disease pressure cannot be underestimated.

This became clear to Lorcan after battling with issues such as a scour outbreak in a previous season.

He has since started using MonoShield Calf from Mayo Healthcare, with the products quickly becoming part of his calf-rearing routine.

Lorcan now feeds every calf MonoShield from the very start to boost their gut health and shield them from the risk of scour.

Lorcan explained: “If I’m feeding a calf with a bottle, he gets 20ml in the milk.

“If he’s suckling the cow, I just give 20ml while he’s sucking. I keep them on it right through to weaning at around 12 weeks.”

The results were immediate.

This season he has continued with the same approach using MonoShield Calf AMC, and recently introduced MonoShield Calf Crypto for the newest calves as an added safeguard.

When disease pressure appeared in the shed recently, Lorcan believes the MonoShield programme made a real difference.

“I’m fairly sure crypto came in here last week,” he said.

“I took three calves out that were very scoury, but within about five days they were back in the group and you wouldn’t know they’d ever had it. They never really went downhill.”

From experience, Lorcan knows how quickly an outbreak can spread through a calf shed.

“Four years ago, before using MonoShield, if something like that got in you might see two or three calves sick one morning and the next day there could be 30 or 35 with it,” he explained.

With around 55 calves currently on the farm, he says only a handful have shown mild signs.

“Maybe three calves have a bit of a sticky bum, but I’m not treating them with anything else - just the MonoShield in the milk," he said.

For Lorcan, the difference in calf health and performance has been clear.

“I thought last week I was going to have a serious problem on my hands,” he said.

“But it never happened - the MonoShield was doing its job. I’m extremely happy with it.”

To learn more about the MonoShield Calf range, speak to your Mayo Healthcare adviser.