The collecting, storing and reheating of colostrum or beestings will take place on the majority of dairy farms during the busy spring-calving period.
Colostrum is vital for young calves. To ensure that the level of immunity in young calves remains high, it is important that they receive the highest quality of colostrum shortly after birth.
The majority of spring-calving dairy herds are now in the heart of the calving season,
To ensure that calves are getting high quality colostrum, it needs to be tested using a brix refractometer and only samples that test 22% or higher should be fed to calves.
Samples that tests over 22% mean that it contains at least 50mg/ml of immunoglobulins.
The colostrum from some cows will not be of high enough quality and shouldn’t be fed to calves, meaning that beestings from another source will need to be used.
Colostrum
On most farms, extra high quality colostrum from cows is stored and used when it is needed.
There are a number of things that need to be considered when storing and reheating. Firstly, you need to ensure that you are storing this colostrum in a clean container that has been disinfected prior to use.
Colostrum is highly nutritious, and therefore can be a breeding ground for bacteria if they are given a chance to grow.
The bacterial content of warmer colostrum doubles every 20 minutes, so it is vital that bacteria is allowed to grow.
The milking machine or even yourself are also possible sources of contamination.
Ensure that it is collected in a hygienic manner so that the quality remains high.
You also need to ensure that it is clearly marked with the date it was taken to be stored, as well as the cow it has been taken from.
You should know the status of the cows you are collecting colostrum from, and those that are positive or that may be positive for Johne’s disease should not be used.
Heating
When heating or thawing frozen colostrum supplies, it is important not to denature the protein with excess heat.
Never thaw or heat beestings in a microwave, or in water that is too hot to immerse you hand into. Water with a temperature of approximately 50°C should be used.
A good tip is to use two steel buckets – one should contain the warm water and the other the beestings.
Ideally, one of the buckets will be slightly smaller, so that the bucket containing the beestings can be submerged into the bucket with the warm water.
After a while, the water can be change to ensure that beestings is heated in a timely manner.
The absorption of antibodies is increased when colostrum is fed warm to calves.