Strict calf management helps cut calf deaths on Welsh dairy farm

Correctly managing and feeding colostrum is allowing a Welsh dairy farm to keep young calves healthy.

Newborn calves from the herd of 400 Holstein cows at Marian Mawr near Rhyl are encouraged to suckle the first colostrum feed from their mother.

If that fails, the cow is milked and the calf is given four litres of colostrum. Calves continue to have their dams’ milk for three days before milk replacer is introduced at two litres, twice a day.

See also: Care in key for calf rearing success

“Once the calf is established on a teat we move it into a group pen with an automatic feeder, usually at five to seven days,” says Aled Morris, who farms at the Farming Connect demonstration farm, with his wife Jo and mother Morfydd.

Calves are weaned at eight weeks and moved to an off-lying farm where they are fed ad lib barley straw and 4-5kg of 18% protein rearing nuts.

A hundred replacement heifers are brought in every year, all reared on the farm.

Mr Morris regards heifer calves as the most valuable animals on the farm. “If a calf has had a good start, it has a better chance of meeting growth targets which are important for calving at 24 months.”

And he believes good quality colostrum is key to preventing calf deaths.

Calves that received insufficient colostrum within the first few hours of birth risk infections and pneumonia – yet up to 50% of calves receive it too late or at inadequate levels, he says.

Scour, pneumonia, navel infections and meningitis are four of the biggest killers of calves under 12 weeks of age. In Wales, one in eight dies between birth and 12 weeks of age, but the best dairy farms lose just one in 25 calves.

Colostrum

Vet Gwyn Jones, of Wern Vets, Ruthin, says calves that don’t consume enough antibodies from colostrum are four times more likely to die than those with an optimum antibody status.

Colostrum is at its prime at calving, he says. “The level of antibodies in the first feed is 6%, but that falls to 4.2% in the second and 2.4% in the third so the first feed is far superior. Always feed the newborn calf colostrum collected at the first milking.

“Colostrum antibody levels drop if left in the udder because the cow reabsorbs them. Levels are halved within 12 hours if she isn’t milked or if her calf doesn’t suck.”

Mr Jones advises feeding three litres of colostrum within six hours of birth or two litres followed by another two litres six hours later. After six hours, absorption efficiency is 30% lower than at birth.

Storing colostrum at too high a temperature will cause scours. At room temperature, the number of bugs it contains will double within 20min, Mr Jones explains. He advised refrigerating colostrum to be used within 24hrs.

If antibody levels are insufficient, calves can succumb to viruses and bacteria, notably E coli, rotavirus, coronavirus and cryptosporidium, Mr Jones says.

Salmonella is also a serious cause of scour. A tell-tale sign is blood in the scour. But cryptosporidium is probably the most prevalent cause, particularly from 10 days onwards.

Scouring calves should be separated from healthy animals, Mr Jones stresses. “Once a calf is scouring it becomes a virus factory, shedding millions of germs.”

“There is also a risk of humans spreading infection so good hygiene protocols between treating an infected calf and handling healthy animals are essential.”