Dr. Canel attends AABP Recent Grad Conference
Knoxville TN hosted this conference that was created several years ago. Recent grads have different needs than established practitioners and recent grads rarely get to go to the main conference as senior practitioners often take those spots. The Recent Grad conference provides training in basic skills that may not have been well covered in school or make more sense once in practice. There is also a large focus on the challenges of practice life and how to adapt. Much of this centers on the thought that sure, this is tough, but so are you. You can do it.

The Keynote was delivered by Dr Marissa Hake, who did our virtual producer's banquet Covid year. Her topic was "Good Husbandry of the Cow Vet." General Sessions included Improving Practice Efficiency with Credentialed Technicians, Understanding Experiences: Retention of Veterinarians, and Clinical Pharmacology. Most of the rest of the sessions alternated between Clinical Skills, Practice Management, Dairy and Beef. The closing General Session included "Managing through Crisis" with the Kansas wild fires, Practice Tips, and What's on Dr Melody's Mind." Dr. Blaine Melody is a young practitioner in the central valley of California that Ors. Lefeld and Hardesty have worked with. He brings a can do attitude and is always looking for what can be added to their practice to improve their dairies.

Ors. Nusbaum and Hardesty attend Mercer Landmark Calf Meeting This meeting in Celina brought in Dr. Don Socket, University of Wisconsin and Tom Earleywine, Ph. D, Director of Nutritional Services at Land O'Lakes.

The standards for passing lgG have changed to reflect what successful calf raisers are doing. TP > 6.2 is considered Excellent and 40% are expected to be in this categlory. The previous cut point for excellent was

5.5. Good Passive Transfer is 5.8 to 6.1 and Fair Passive Transfer is 5.1 to 5.7. We can draw serum samples on calves 24 hours old to 7 days of age at herdcheck and determine how you are doing. This may be the most important measure for a calf.

While the standards of a healthy calf have changed the methods for getting there have not, but need to. Colostrum recommendations are based on 50 gram lgG/ liter but current Holstein first milking is 75 to 80 g/1. For a calf to receive >200 grams of lgG within two hours of birth, they need 3 liters of 75 g/1 or 4 liters of 50 g/1. Calves will commonly drink 2 to 3 liters of colostrums then stop nursing, so we tube the rest. Do we need to? How good is your colostrum? A Brix refractometer can tell you in seconds.

Efficiency of absorption is affected by the concentration of immunoglobulins in the colostrums. More concentrated colostrum is better absorbed resulting in better immunity. There is no evidence that receiving more than 300 grams of lgG within 12 hours of birth results in any better immunity. We like to make things simple and routine. That is why offering or tubing with 4 quarts of colostrums at birth followed by offering 2 quarts 6 to 12 hours later has served us well. We know that calves nurse better at two hours of age than at six. We do not tube the second feeding and do not tube milk after the first colostrum. Tubing milk and tubing second feeding colostrum has its own set of issues including Aspiration pneumonia, pharyngeal or esophageal trauma, rumenitis, omasitis, abomasitis, and abomasal ulcers.

Calves fed 4 liters of colostrums followed by 2 liters by tube will not eat for 18 to 36 hours. Tubing results in abdominal discomfort as milk by tube goes into the reticolo-rumen, which is 50% the size of the abomasums at birth. A large colostrum curd in the abomasums can cause abdominal distension and colic. So what do we think now? The best is to use the Brix refractometer to determine the lgG concentration. We still need to reach 300 grams of lgG. A 22 Brix would have 8.5 mg/ml lgG or 85 grams per liter. Strategies would be 1) Tube 3.5 liters at birth and offer 2 liters 6 hours later. 2) Offer 3.5 liters in first 2 hours, tube what they don't drink. 3) Offer 2.5 liters in the first 2 hours, offer 2 more liters in 6 hours or 4) Offer 8.5% of body weight at birth. 85 pounds at .085 is 3.6 7.225 pounds or 3.6 liters. Offer 2 liters more at 6 hours. A 100 pound calf gets 4.25 liters but that may need to be divided. Pick the system that works for your management, then check how we did with total proteins. Don't wait until we see if they get sick. By then there are many variables, and by the time you know about immunity, you may have several compromised calves in the pipeline.

Colostrum isn't just about passive transfer. It is also great nutrition. You can help calves flourish by adding 2 ounces of colostrum at each feeding for the first two weeks. It especially gives a boost to scouring calves.