The autumn-calving season is underway on some farms, while for many others there are still a couple of weeks before cows are due to start calving.
With the arrival of calves, the important job of ensuring that they receive adequate colostrum follows. It is crucial that calves receive adequate colostrum within the first two hours of life.
Farmers should follow the 1,2,3 rule when feeding newborn calves.
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 good-quality colostrum.
Colostrum quality
Just as important as the volume and time in which it is fed, is the quality of the colostrum fed to calves.
Colostrum should be tested using a Brix refractometer and only fed to calves if it tests higher than 22%.
If extra-high-quality colostrum is identified, it should be collected and stored and offered to calves when needed.
If there was an issue with colostrum quality in the past, there are a number of measures that can improve the quality.
On farms where cows are housed 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 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 overfed to cows it will have little or no impact on calf size, but should have an impact on the colostrum produced by the cow.
Soya is also expensive so it should be fed in situation where it is really required and where it will provide the most benefit.
Otherwise, it is an extra expense that farmers are not going to see the benefit from.