Heifers are one of the most valuable assets for a dairy operation. They are the future of the milking herd and, ultimately, determine the profitability and longevity of your business. Dr. Rebecca Klopp, a calf and heifer specialist with Purina Animal Nutrition, talked about early calf care and nutrition as a foundation for the future health of your replacement dairy heifers.
?When we talk about colostrum, it’s not just as simple as the calf got colostrum or it didn’t get colostrum,? Dr. Klopp said. ?The first one is quality. So, make sure that that colostrum that the calf is consuming is considered high-quality, and so you’re able to test the quality of colostrum on-farm. And then the second thing to consider is how much of that colostrum calves are getting. The recommendation is about ten percent of the calf’s body weight that they need in colostrum to get enough passive transfer of antibodies. The next important thing is the timing of that colostrum feeding. So, it’s essential that calves get colostrum within the first four hours after being born. The next thing to consider is cleanliness, so just make sure that anything that the colostrum comes in contact with is clean and sanitary and free from bacteria. And then it’s also really important after colostrum that calves get a high-quality milk or milk replacer.?
After nutrition, Dr. Klopp said there are other important factors in early life care.
?Making sure that the environment that a calf is born into is clean and sanitary,? Dr. Klopp said. ?Calves already have a naive immune system; they don’t have a whole lot of protection until they get those maternal antibodies. It’s really important when the calf is born and it hits the ground that the environment that it’s in is clean, it’s dry, and we’re trying to reduce the manure exposure or anything else that the calf could come in contact with. And then the other thing that I always recommend for a newborn calf is dipping their navel, so it’s really important that we dip enable with a seven percent tincture of iodine.?
Dr. Klopp said there are several on-farm benefits when lactating cows are fed a high plane of nutrition as calves.
?If a calf is experiencing a health challenge, that energy is going to be taken away from growth and development and be utilized by the immune system, and then there might not be any leftover for growth and development,? Dr. Klopp said. ?And what we know is if we miss that early on essential growth and development of the calf, we don’t ever catch up, and that calf is going to always lag behind a little bit and never fully meet its genetic potential. And so that’s why it’s really important to feed a high plane of nutrition diet to calves because essentially, this is making sure that they have all of the nutrients and energy for maintenance. If they are to experience some kind of health challenges early in life, they have enough energy to tackle that health challenge, but then they still have extra energy and nutrition in order for them to grow and develop.?
Supporting proper mammary development early in life leads to increased milk production in subsequent lactations.
?We see through research that, for every .1-pound increase and pre-weaned average daily gain, it’s going to be equal to 155 additional pounds of first lactation milk yield,? Dr. Klopp said. ?And so, if we have a calf that has an average daily gain of 1.5, and then another calf that’s average daily gain is 1.7 because that calf is more efficient, it’s growing better, maybe it didn’t experience a health challenge so it could use that extra energy for growth and development, with that animal, based on research, has the potential to have an additional 310-pound increase in its first lactation milk yield.?
For more information, talk with your Purina representative or visit purinamills.com.
