Does Using an Automatic Calf Feeding System

Always Predict Success?

Bentley and Others collected data from 20 Iowa dairies ranging size from 179 to 880 cows.These dairies had experience with their automatic calf feeder system (sometimes called "computer feeders") ranging from 11 months to 60 months with an average of 2.6 years.

The measures of success include calves dying, sick calves and rate of gain.

Success                    Average     Lowest     Highest     DCHA Gold

Measure                   Value         Value       Value        Standard Value

Dead (mortality)      3%             1%            10%          5%

Sick - scours            14%           0%             80%         25%

Sick - pneumonia    14%            0%            50%          10%

Average Daily

Gain (lbs./day)         2.3              1.25          3.5            1.6 or double birth weight in 60 days

What a huge variation in these success measures among these dairies!

My consulting experience suggests that calving pen management, colostrum management and group housing environment might just be other variables in creating such a wide variation among the farms. 

The Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (DCHA) Gold Standards for heifers is normally available at the www.calfandheifer.org website. Currently there is an update in progress so we have to wait to view these values until this resource is reposted. 

Reference: Bentley, J., K. Lager, L. Tranel, R. Lenth, L. Timms, and L. Kilmer, "Automatic calf feeding systems: Producer Survetys." Proceeding of 4-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference, June 11-12, 2014. pp 90-92.

Calf Management Ideas from

2012 Alberta Calf Study

The study by Doepel and Bartier, University of Calgary, included 13 farms ranging size from 60 to 300 cows. The calves, 755 Holstein breed, were observed over the period from February through June.

First idea: Measure the quality of colostrum before feeding it. About 30 percent of the colostrum samples from the 13 farms were below the commonly accepted standard of 50g/L. Just feeding more low quality colostrum will not deliver the goods to newborn calves.

Second idea: When measuring colostrum quality with a Brix instrument, use at least 23 as the lower threshold for "good" quality, higher is better. My observation: when measuring colostrum quality with a Colostrometer when it is fresh from the dam ("harvest temperature") look for a reading as the lower threshold for "good" in the green range where the stem reads 70-80g/L.

Third idea: Forty-four percent of the 755 calves had passive transfer failure (defined as below 5.2g/dl blood serum total protein). Because this number is much higher than the 30 percent of low quality colostrum samples something else had to be going wrong in colostrum management on these farms. Remember that quality is only one leg on the three-leg stool supporting immunity - the other two legs are "quickly" and "quantity." Feed enough high quality colostrum as soon as practical after birth!

Fourth idea: Feed lots of colostrum. They found a direct relationship between volume of colostrum fed between 0 and 6 hours and the immunity level of calves. That is, 3 quarts of colostrum is better than 2 quarts. And, for colostrum fed between 6 and 12 hours the same connection is valid - feed more and get higher levels of immunity. 

Reference: Doepel, Lorraine and Amanda Bartier, "Colostrum Management and Factors Related to Poor Calf Immunity." Western Canadian Dairy Seminar, March 11-14, 2014. WCDA Advances in Dairy Technology 26:137-149.

One or Two Colostrum Replacer Feedings?

Neave and Others reported on a study that compared two treatment groups: One group received one 3 -liter colostrum replacer feeding at birth receiving a total of 200 grams of antibodies (IgG). The other group received two 3-liter colostrum feedings, one at birth (200 grams of IgG) and a second at 6 hours after birth.

Here are the results for the two groups at 1, 7, 14, and 28 days of age:

[we like to see serum values above 15 to show successful passive transfer]

            Serum Levels (mg/ml)

Day of Blood      One Feeding     Two Feedings     Increase Due to 2nd Feeding

  Draw                                                                                   (percentage)

         1                       20                        28                                  40

         7                       13                        20                                  54

       14                       11                        16                                  45

       28                         8                        11                                  38

Not only does the second feeding result in a 40 percent increase in IgG levels at one day but this improvement persists.

For those dairies giving only one feeding of colostrum replacer with a total of 150 grams, these results should suggest that there would be a significant value in changing the protocol to include a second feeding near the 6 hour threshold.

Reference: H. W. Neave, Z. Cocker, and D. M. Veira, "Two Feedings of Colostrum within 6 Hours of Birth Improves Serum Immunoglobulin G Levels in Dairy Calves Up To 28 Days of Age." Proceedings of Western Canadian Dairy Seminar, March, 2014.

Using an Esophageal Tube Feeder

You-Tube Video

Dr. Sheila McGuirk

Make your day! Take 11 minutes to watch this great You Tube video. Dr. Sheila McGuirk made a presentation on esophageal tube feeders and their use at a PDPW meeting and that's the video - not the greatest video recording but dynamite content.

This video is found at Tube Feeder Dr. McGuirk .

This presentation is loaded with nuggets of calf management wisdom - honest, I've been working in this area for 26 years, I watched this twice, and I picked up several new insights.

Vaccinating Calves - Guidelines

Dr. Amelia Woolums, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, prepared a short list of guidelines for vaccinating young calves that have circulating maternal antibodies [these are calves that received an adequate volume of good quality colostrum soon after birth]. 

" When developing plans to vaccinate calves with circulating maternal

antibody, keep in mind the following:

a. calves are more likely than adults to require booster vaccinations,

which should be given at least 2 to 4 weeks after the initial

vaccination;

b. intranasal vaccines may be more effective than injected vaccines in

calves with moderate to high concentrations of maternal antibodies;

however, immunity from intranasal vaccines may not last more than

a few months;

c. repeated doses of intranasal vaccines may not boost as effectively

as repeated doses of injected vaccines;

d. calves with very high concentrations of maternal antibody, such as

those found in the first month of life in calves with good passive

transfer, may not respond as well to vaccination as calves with

moderate to low concentrations of antibody;

e. vaccines should be administered so that the final dose is given no

later than 1-2 weeks before the expected exposure of the group to

infectious agents.

I was pleased to see that she emphasized booster vaccinations and final dose no later than 1-2 weeks before expected exposure.

The protocol failures that I turn up on dairies are mostly missing the booster vaccinations and giving the final dose too close to the expected exposure (that is, before grouping or re-grouping heifers).

[Reference: "Vaccinating Dry Cows and Calves: With what, when, and is it effective at protecting the calf?', Western Canadian Dairy Seminar, March, 2014.

Cow Factors that Influence Colostrum Quality

Dr. Fiona Maunsell, University of  Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine, in her paper entitled, "Cow Factors That Influence Colostrum Quality" presented at the Western Canadian Dairy Seminar in March, 2014, isolated these nine Take Home Points: (text below is directly from the seminar proceedings - I added bold emphasis, however)

 “High quality” colostrum is first-milking colostrum that contains at least 50

g/L of the antibody immunoglobulin G (IgG), contains a low concentration

(<100,000 cfu/ml) of bacterial contaminants and is free of infectious

disease agents.

 Transfer of antibodies (especially IgG) from the blood of the cow into

colostrum starts about 5 weeks prior to calving, and is maximal in the last

2 weeks before calving.

 The older the cow, the better the colostrum – but there’s lots of individual

variation! On average, first-calf heifer colostrum is lower in volume and

IgG concentration than that from older cows. However, many heifers

produce very good quality colostrum. Don’t automatically discard heifer

colostrum; rather test and keep high quality colostrum from a cow of any

parity.

 Don’t automatically discard high volume first-milking colostrum if it was

collected within a few hours of calving; colostrum should be tested and

only discarded if low quality.

 Discard bloody colostrum, colostrum from sick cows, from cows with

clinical mastitis, from cows that are known to be infected with chronic

diseases such as Johne’s disease or Mycoplasma, and from cows that

leak colostrum extensively prior to calving.

 There is little evidence that nutrition, within the range of diets typically fed

to dairy cows, has much influence on either the volume or quality of

colostrum.

 Heat stress may reduce the quality of colostrum, especially in heifers.

 Dry period length should be at least 3-4 weeks to maximize colostrum

quality.

Vaccinate cows against the calf diarrhea pathogens E. coli, rotavirus and

coronavirus to maximize the amount of antibodies against these agents in

colostrum. Make sure that cows are vaccinated at the appropriate time to

optimize transfer of vaccine-induced antibodies into colostrum.

What a great collection of Take Home Points!

Colostrum Wins Yet Again

Good colostrum management wins yet again.

Windeyer and Others ("Factors associated with morbidity, mortality and growth of dairy calves up to 3 months of age" Prev. Vet. Med. 113(2):231-240 February, 2014) used blood serum total protein values from 2,874 calves from 19 dairies in Minnesota and Ontario to assess the degree of passive immunity transfer. In general these were well-managed calf enterprises averaging close to 2 pounds a day gain in first two months.

Among the six factors associated with risk of being treated for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) was failure of passive transfer of immunity. "A cut-point of 5.7g/dl was the most predictive of BRD before 5 weeks of age." Colostrum wins yet again if it is of good quality, fed ASAP and in great enough volume. 

Two other risk factors for BRD that caught my attention were the herd -level of incidence of BRD [Is there a lot of it going around?] and season of the year [Fall and Spring weather can be tough on calves].