NEW PRAGUE, Minn. — Adequate consumption of colostrum by dairy calves provides an opportunity for achieving early calf health.
“It is not enough just to feed colostrum. We want to get passive transfer of immunoglobulins from the colostrum through the walls of the digestive tract to the blood stream to effect the calf’s immunity,” said Dave Cook, technical services manager for Milk Products, based on Chilton, Wisconsin. “And the opportunity for passive transfer decreases in time.”
High quality colostrum contains 50 grams of immunoglobulins per liter of colostrum, Cook said during a webinar organized by the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association.
“Successful passive transfer can be monitored,” he said. “The goal is serum immunoglobulins concentration of 10 grams per liter of serum 24 to 48 hours after the colostrum is fed.”
Studies show that calves that achieve the standard of passive transfer have higher survivability, lower treatment rates, earlier age at first calving and higher milk production during the first and second lactations.
“In this study, calves were fed two or four liters of colostrum, and the calves that received two liters produced 18,000 liters of milk during their first two lactations,” Cook said. “The calves that received four liters of colostrum produced 21,000 liters of milk during their first two lactations.”
To achieve successful passive transfer with maternal colostrum a protocol should be used to address the five Qs of colostrum — quality, quantity, quickly, quite clean and quantify, Cook said.
“You can’t tell by the quality of cows or looking at the colostrum whether it is high quality or not, it needs to be measured,” he said.
For quickness of feeding colostrum, Cook said, there are two clocks ticking as soon as the calf is born.
“The immunoglobulin concentration of colostrum in the cow starts decreasing until she is milked,” he said. “And the efficiency of absorption of the calf is at its maximum as soon as the calf is born and hour by hour that decreases.”
The target for cleanliness is a total plate count of less than 100,000 colony forming units of pathogenic bacteria, Cook said.
“This study of 67 U.S. dairy farms and 746 samples showed 45% of the colostrum samples had greater than 100,000 colony forming units per milliliter and 18% has greater than 1 million colony forming units per milliliter,” he said.
Sources of bacteria, Cook said, include mastitis, fecal contamination, dirty milking equipment, dirty feeding equipment or growth replication during storage.
“The longer we let the colostrum sit at room temperature, the more bacteria are reproducing,” he said.
Step By Step
Although there is no substitute for high quality maternal colostrum, dairymen need to take steps when the colostrum is lower quality, said Adam Geiger, research nutritionist, dairy and colostrum for Zinpro Corp. based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
“One option is another feeding of colostrum 10 to 12 hours later,” Geiger said.
“You could feed a colostrum replacer, but make sure the immunoglobulin concentration is high enough,” he said. “Or, feed a moderate quality colostrum and supplement it to push calves up to higher levels of passive transfer.”
Geiger discussed a study that included dividing calves into three groups. Calves were fed a high quality maternal colostrum over 150 grams of immunoglobulins per liter, a colostrum replacer that provided 150 grams of immunoglobulins at first feeding or a low quality colostrum supplemented with 40 grams of immunoglobulins from a whey-based colostrum replacer.
“We looked at the serum immunoglobulins at 24 hours and all treatments resulted in successful passive transfer above 10 grams per liter,” he said.
However, there were differences in the treatments.
“The calves fed the colostrum replacer had serum immunoglobulins of 17 grams per liter, the colostrum supplemented calves were at 22 grams per liter and the maternal colostrum calves had 27 grams per liter,” Geiger said.
The researchers also evaluated the apparent efficiency of absorption which is measured 24 to 48 hours after the first feeding of colostrum. This percentage is determined by dividing the amount in the serum by the amount that was fed to the calf.
“The apparent efficiency of absorption for the maternal colostrum was 25%, calves fed colostrum replacer was 40% and the calves fed supplemental colostrum had an extremely high apparent efficiency of absorption of almost 55%,” Geiger said. “Even though the immunoglobulin intake was similar to calves fed the colostrum replacer the serum immunoglobulin levels at 24 hours was greater.”
These calves were getting the best of both worlds, Geiger said.
“They’re getting on-farm antibodies from maternal colostrum specific to diseases they’re going to encounter on that farm and overall immunoglobulin levels were boosted by providing additional immunoglobulins,” he said.
High quality maternal colostrum is an excellent way to achieve passive transfer, Geiger said.
“But even farms that are excellently managing their calves are still going to struggle from time to time to get calves to consistently achieve objectives,” he said. “That’s where we think supplementing colostrum with a concentrated immunoglobulin source plays a role as a tool.”