With the calving season only a matter of weeks away, the preparation for ensuring calves receive quality colostrum should start now.
In cows, antibody transfer does not occur in utero, as it does in humans, so the calf is reliant on receiving enough antibodies through colostrum as soon as possible after birth.
If quality colostrum is not received, calves are at a significantly higher risk of illness and death and if they survive any illness, the calves will have reduced growth rates subsequently.
Cows that are within target body condition score (BCS) at calving of about 3.25 and are on a good plane of nutrition should have plentiful supply of high quality colostrum.
Farmers must ensure that a high quality dry cow mineral is kept in front of the dry cows right up to calving to ensure quality colostrum is produced.
If silage quality is tested and comes up as a poor dry matter digestibility (DMD) silage, then supplementary feeding will help to improve the colostrum quality.
Quality colostrum
Colostrum contains high levels of energy compared to normal milk which is crucial for new-born calves, as they have limited amounts of fat reserves.
These reserves are quickly used up to maintain body temperature in the absence of colostrum feeding.
Colostrum quality can be measured using a colostrometer or a brix refractometer with values above 22% being suitable to feed new-born calves.
Farmers need to remember the ‘1-2-3’ colostrum rule as follows:
- The calf gets colostrum from the first milking for the first feed;
- Within two hours of the calf’s birth;
- Give at least 3L of milk to the calf.
Good quality beestings is like a vaccination for calves, as it provides the calves with immunity which will provide the calf with the protection it needs, along with feeding transition milk for five days.
The timing of colostrum is very important as it influences the antibody levels in colostrum as antibody levels are highest when collected immediately post calving within eight hours and drop dramatically after that.
The antibody levels deteriorate drastically as they are diluted within the udder as more milk is produced.
Collection of this colostrum needs to happen in as clean a manner as possible and ensure that the cow’s teat are cleaned prior to first milking and collected into a clean bucket.
High total bacteria count (TBC) colostrum has been shown to have an impact on passive transfer of immunity to calves when it was not fed immediately or stored at 4℃ for a maximum of 48 hours.
When high TBC colostrum was not stored in a fridge, bacterial growth increased and consequently, the absorption of antibodies was reduced.
Remember that the journey in ensuring quality colostrum needs to have already started, as cows need to be managed in this period of transition, as there is only three weeks until the first few cows start calving for most farmers.