Feeding calves high-quality colostrum is important to ensure they get maximum benefit from the antibodies present.
Calves are born with no antibodies and are therefore extremely susceptible to disease or sickness, which is why feeding calves colostrum is so important.
When feeding calves colostrum it is important to remember the 1,2,3 rule.
Using the 1,2,3 rule:
- Use the first milk (colostrum) from the cow;
- Feed the calf colostrum within the first two-hours of birth;
- Calves must be offered at least 3L of colostrum.
Colostrum
To make sure that calves are getting the highest quality colostrum possible, the colostrum should be tested.
An easy way that this can be done is by using a Brix Refractometer.
Colostrum over 22% should be fed to calves as this means the colostrum contains 50mg/ml of immunoglobulins.
If extra-high-quality colostrum has been obtained it should be stored and fed to calves whose dams’ milk was not of high enough quality.
However, this should only be done in herds where the risk of Johne’s disease is low.
Colostrum quality
If you have housed cows ahead of calving it is important that they are being fed silage with at least 12% protein.
This will help them to produce high-quality colostrum that can then be fed to calves.
On farms where colostrum quality has been an issue in the past, soya can be fed to cows two weeks prior to calving.
Offering cows between 200-300g/head should improve the colostrum from the cow, without impacting on calf size.
Some farmers may be hesitant to feed soya to cows that are heavily in-calf and close to calving, but once soya is not over-fed to cows it will have little or no impact on calf size, but should have an impact on the colostrum produced by the cow.