Week 7
Dairy: Calves |
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Colostrum Management
Text
Transcript
Follow along with the audio...
- Timing
- 1st hr of life
- 12 hr later
- Quantity
- Quality
- Age of dam
- 1st milking
- Vaccination of dam
- High Antibody
- Older cows
- 1st milking
- Vaccination
- Low 1st milk yield
- Low Antibody
- 1st lactation
- Later milkings
- No vaccination
- High 1st milk yield
When to Feed Colostrum
- Ig absorption highest at birth and declines to near zero by 24 hours
of age
- The intestine has the ability to absorb large molecules for the 1st
3 - 24 hours of life
- Feed as soon as possible (1-2 hours after birth) and 12 hours later
How to Feed Colostrum
- Let the calf nurse the dam or bottle feed (or esophageal feeder) the
calf?
- 25-40% of calves don’t consume adequate colostrum
- Bottom line – calves that nurse the dam are at greater risk of consuming
insufficient colostrum and consuming that colostrum later compared to
hand feeding
How Much Colostrum to Feed
- Traditional – feed 2 quarts as soon as possible and 2 quarts 12 hours
later
- Depends on several factors
- Antibody (Ig) concentration in colostrum
- Weight and age of calf
Colostrometer
- Measures the specific gravity of milk
- Greater specific gravity is better
- Greater specific gravity means more solids = more Ig
Milk Composition
Milk Composition
Item
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
Milk |
Specific Gravity
|
1.056 |
1.040 |
1.035 |
1.032 |
Solids, % |
23.9 |
17.9 |
14.1 |
12.9 |
Protein, % |
14.0 |
8.4 |
5.1 |
3.1 |
IgG, g/L |
48.0 |
25.0 |
15.0 |
0.6 |
Fat, % |
6.7 |
5.4 |
3.9 |
3.7 |
Lactose, % |
2.7 |
3.9 |
4.4 |
5.0 |
Frozen Colostrum
- Freeze from older cows - good quality
- Freeze in gallon bags
- Thaw in warm water, not boiling water
- Microwave - medium to low power or defrost
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