Contamination and Colostrum/Milk

A calf’s success in life starts with getting two things right, colostrum and where it is born. Calves that die in less than 5 days probably had an issue with one of these. Contaminated colostrum or waste milk can be a huge disease challenge. The only real way to tell if colostrum is clean or dirty is to have us test it in our milk quality lab. Collect a sample at the point of colostrum or milk feeding and freeze it. We plate quantifications on Tuesdays. The samples can be brought to the clinic or sent with our route driver. If the total bacteria count is over 20,000 or the coliform count is over 1000, further investigation is needed. The most common issue is cooling. It takes 4 hrs for a 5-gallon bucket of colostrum to cool to less than 60° in a refrigerator. During that time the bacteria is doubling every 20 minutes. The best solution for this is to feed it right away and cool or freeze the remainder. Potassium Sorbate can slow the bacteria multiplication rate to 10% of normal rate or doubling every 200 minutes. Many dairies add this to the colostrum that isn’t fed right away.

The next contamination challenges are collecting and feeding equipment. Does your catch bucket and bypass hose get thoroughly cleaned with a 4 step procedure just like the milking equipment? A little Clorox is not a cleaning system. How do you clean an esophageal feeder? We have brushes for the long feeding tube. There are systems that have a disposable tube for feeding. If you can’t solve the cleanliness issue, that may be the system to invest in. Esophageal feeders are cheap, and I suggest that you buy several at a time. Date when one goes into service and throw them away daily, weekly or no less than monthly, depending on use. Pasteurization is not sterilization, and putting pasteurized milk in dirty containers is a common way to poison calves. Pasteurizers should have a standard plate count done at least monthly.

What about maternity pens? We have success and failure with every style. From individual just in time pens that get cleaned out after every calving, to community bedded pens that gets cleaned out periodically. Can you kneel or sit in the pen and be clean and dry when you get up? If not, a bedding change is overdue. How much time do calves spend in the maternity pen? If calves are standing or worse yet, nursing in the maternity pen, the calves have been exposed to adult manure too long. Safe zones in the maternity pen can be a place calves are placed as soon as they are found to keep them from being injured or diving into adult manure on initial attempts to stand. Many dairies have milkers on the farm many hours daily. Training them to move calves into safe zones and identifying the dam may be the first step in a healthy life.

Calf Summer Needs Dr. Laura Nusbaum

We typically worry about keeping cows happy and cool in the summer, but what about calves? True, they don’t seem to generate as much heat as cows do, but they still need to stay cool. There are also other summer demands that we need to manage for calves throughout the warm months.

Heat abatement: The Thermo neutral temperature for calves in the summer is usually UNDER 78°F. As humidity in our area increases the temperature that they are comfortable at goes down. Calves are susceptible to heat stress just like cows and humans. With heat stress comes increased respiration rates, decreased appetites and weakened immune systems. We don’t often recommend using sprinklers on calves but very strongly recommend other cooling techniques such as fans and shade cloths. Calves in hutches need to have as much air flow as possible. Many hutches have vents to open and many producers elevate the back of the hutches to allow air to enter from one end & flow out the other. In calf barns, fans and positive pressure tubes are utilized to keep a continuous fresh air flow available to the calves.

Bedding choices may need to be altered in the warmer months. We typically use straw in the winter to allow calves to insulate themselves. Now sand or other nonabsorbent bedding may help keep them cool. Calves will typically consume more water in the warm months which means more water unanted out – so, bedding needs to be kept clean and dry. Drainage systems have been helpful to double the life of bedding. These have evolved over time. We prefer not to have a trough in front of calves that holds organism laden liquid close to the calf space. The most cost effective is a one foot wide cut in the floor in the middle of the pen that has drain tile placed in the bottom and is covered with gravel. Of course, these fill with organic material over time and need to have the tube and gravel removed and replaced every few years. All systems plug up so don’t make them too fancy. Of course the tile needs to drain somewhere. Some go to a reception pit, others drain onto a grassy area. If calves need to be worked (vaccinated, dehorned or castrated), it is best to do this in the cool of the morning.

Nutrition: Commonly calves will have a decreased appetite in the heat. We need to target feeding strategies to allow calves to continue to grow despite reduced feed intake. Calves will drink/eat more in the cool of the morning or evening. Provide fresh feed/milk during these times. Any stressor can cause an increase in calories burned by these calves. So our goal is to provide a palatable, energy packed ration to allow them to grow, maintain their immune system, and deal with heat and fly stress. It takes almost as much energy to deal with heat stress as it does cold stress. Water is such an important part of calf nutrition. Clean, fresh water needs to be delivered EVERY SINGLE DAY. Water that is dumped out should never be dumped in the pen. It should be collected and taken to a drain or out of the calf area. Even day old calves will take in water to supplement the increased losses of moisture through their respiratory and urinary systems. We have been impressed with providing a bottle of water right after we take out their milk bottle. This keeps them well hydrated and better able to deal with stressors. They also eat more grain sooner resulting in better growth and immune functions.

Extras: Keep in mind the added losses that calves experience in the summer heat. If a calf is looking puny or dehydrated, always, always, always offer electrolytes. We can help guide you to purchase the most appropriate electrolyte supplements. These should be offered orally as a separate feeding 1-2 times daily. If a calf is still not responding well, fluid given under the skin is a good way to battle extra fluid losses with dehydration. I will commonly recommend up to 4 liters under the skin in a calf with scours over the course of a day in some extreme cases. If you are not comfortable doing this, please let us help you get this set up. Giving one liter only takes about 10 minutes of your time. It is a pretty inexpensive way to save a calf. If a calf can’t stand and suck, it needs IV fluids.

Fly control: Just like cows, flies are a stressor to calves. Managing flies in and around calf areas is a year-round process. Flies are naturally attracted to calf feed and manure. Offer fresh feed daily & dispose of old/bad feed away from the calf area. Commonly this is fed to older calves. Manure needs to be removed as much as possible. By keeping air moving, we can help prevent flies from hanging around. Fly control methods like spraying, baiting and feeding larvicides or IGR’s will also aid in keeping the local fly population down.