Dairy Resources - Growing Heifer Replacements

November 2023

The new technology allows for milk replacers to be formulated in a way that more closely resembles bovine milk, compared to milk replacers traditionally based on available dairy industry bioproducts. Photo: Canva

A major discovery in the science of fatty acids has led to the development of a technology that meets calves’ nutritional requirements while nurturing ruminant health, supporting physiological development, and enhancing calf care on the farm. The discovery was unveiled during the 3rd LifeStart Symposium held from 17-18 October in Nottingham, England, and co-hosted by Trouw Nutrition, the livestock feed business of Nutreco, and the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science.

October 2023

Research carried out in Ireland evaluated the effects of a slow-release milk replacer on health and behaviour of neonatal dairy calves to look at the potential benefits to welfare during transport. Photo: Canva

Once daily feeding of slow-release milk replacer has demonstrated favourable patterns of blood variables related to satiety and hunger as well as behavioural patterns that did not differ from conventional twice-daily feeding.

October 2023

The efficiency of Ig absorption over the first 24 hours post-calving decreases after 6 hours reaching its minimal level at 24 hours of age, following the phenomenon known as gut closure. Photo: Canva

Colostrum is one of the most critical components of calf feeding as it provides essential nutrients to increase metabolism and stimulate digestive activity. Colostrum is also the source of passive immune protection that is essential for keeping a calf healthy. These factors should be considered to ensure that the calf can best utilise this valuable resource.

April 2023

ABSTRACT

The objective of this narrative review was to compare the results of the 2015 Canadian National Dairy Study and the 2014 US National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Dairy Studies, with a specific focus on calf management and welfare, and to interpret these findings within more recent calf health research to describe where we need to go next in the North American dairy industry. Situating results of periodic national studies within the context of past and recent research provides an opportunity to gauge adoption of recommendations and best practices and to help identify persistent and new challenges that the industry is wrestling with to help guide research needs. Through this review of the 2 national studies, we identified several strengths of the Canadian and US dairy industries. In each area of calf health management, improvements relative to previous NAHMS studies and the published literature have been found in the level of mortality, amount of colostrum fed, housing, and the number of producers using pain control for disbudding and dehorning. There were, however, some areas that present clear opportunities for improvement. Specifically, although mortality levels have improved, a large number of calves die at birth, within the first 48 h of life, and during the preweaning period. To improve the health of calves in early life, producers could look at feeding high-quality colostrum at 10% of body weight in the first feeding, as well as feeding a larger amount of milk during the preweaning period. The barriers to making these management changes and improving overall calf health need to be identified in future studies. The majority of preweaning calves in Canada and the United States are housed in individual housing. This represents a clear opportunity for improvement because recent research has identified the positive aspects of group housing. Finally, with respect to pain control, improvements are needed (particularly in the United States) to ensure that pain management is provided when disbudding and dehorning calves. Although the science is clear on pain management, discussions with producers are needed to identify reasons for the lack of uptake.

S. Roche, D.L. Renaud, C.A. Bauman, D. Short, J. Saraceni, D.F. Kelton
Journal of Dairy Science, DOI:https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22793

January 2023

ABSTRACT

Many milk-fed dairy calves are not provided forage. In these settings, calves often perform abnormal repetitive behaviors (ARBs), including tongue rolling and nonnutritive oral manipulation (NNOM), which, based on their form, seem similar to movements used when processing feed. Feeding hay, typically presented as a short chop (≤5 cm) in a bucket, reduces ARBs. Our objective was to evaluate whether altering the presentation method of long hay (∼19 cm), by providing it in a bucket or a novel polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe feeder, could reduce ARBs. Holstein heifer calves were housed individually on sand and fed ad libitum starter grain and limited milk replacer (5.7–8.4 L/d step-up) via a bottle (Control, n = 9) or given access to mountaingrass hay in a bucket (Bucket, n = 9) or in a PVC pipe feeder (Pipe, n = 9). The 56 × 10.2 cm (length × diameter) PVC pipe feeder had 4 openings that were 6.35 cm wide, which required the calf to insert her tongue into the pipe and curl her tongue to extract hay. Treatments were applied from birth through 50 d of age, when step-down weaning began and TMR was provided to all calves. Calves were fully weaned at d 60. At wk 4 and 6, oral behaviors (eating, ruminating, drinking water, sucking milk, self-grooming, NNOM, tongue rolling, tongue flicking, and panting) were recorded by direct observation for 24 h using 1–0 sampling during 5-s intervals. Feeding long hay, regardless of presentation method, increased overall DMI, grain intake, and ADG compared with Control calves. Hay provision also increased rumination (25 vs. 15% of 24-h observations in Control) and eating time (5.5 vs. 2% in Control). Abnormal behaviors were seen in all calves. Hay provision reduced some of these, including NNOM (5 vs. 9% in Control). There was no difference in NNOM between calves fed hay in a pipe or bucket, even though Bucket calves consumed more hay (178 vs. 129 g/d in wk 6) and tended to spend more observations eating hay than Pipe calves (4.5 vs. 3%). Hay provision did not affect other behaviors: drinking water (0.5%), grooming (3%), or tongue flicking (3%). We also found evidence of other abnormal oral behaviors that have received less attention. Calves showed signs of polydipsia, and displayed excessive grooming, the latter indicated by overall duration, number of bouts per day, and duration of individual bouts (up to 25 min). Tongue rolling was expressed at low levels (up to 0.4% of intervals) but by 85% of calves. Feeding hay, both in a bucket and using novel methods, was not enough to counteract the welfare challenges associated with individual housing and limited ability to suck milk (<1% of time). Provision of long hay, regardless of presentation method, promotes rumination, improves performance (higher grain intake and ADG) and reduces at least some, but not all, of the considerable abnormal oral behaviors these calves performed.

Blair C. Downey, Cassandra B. Tucker
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22413

ABSTRACT

Many milk-fed dairy calves are not provided forage. In these settings, calves often perform abnormal repetitive behaviors (ARBs), including tongue rolling and nonnutritive oral manipulation (NNOM), which, based on their form, seem similar to movements used when processing feed. Feeding hay, typically presented as a short chop (≤5 cm) in a bucket, reduces ARBs. Our objective was to evaluate whether altering the presentation method of long hay (∼19 cm), by providing it in a bucket or a novel polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe feeder, could reduce ARBs. Holstein heifer calves were housed individually on sand and fed ad libitum starter grain and limited milk replacer (5.7–8.4 L/d step-up) via a bottle (Control, n = 9) or given access to mountaingrass hay in a bucket (Bucket, n = 9) or in a PVC pipe feeder (Pipe, n = 9). The 56 × 10.2 cm (length × diameter) PVC pipe feeder had 4 openings that were 6.35 cm wide, which required the calf to insert her tongue into the pipe and curl her tongue to extract hay. Treatments were applied from birth through 50 d of age, when step-down weaning began and TMR was provided to all calves. Calves were fully weaned at d 60. At wk 4 and 6, oral behaviors (eating, ruminating, drinking water, sucking milk, self-grooming, NNOM, tongue rolling, tongue flicking, and panting) were recorded by direct observation for 24 h using 1–0 sampling during 5-s intervals. Feeding long hay, regardless of presentation method, increased overall DMI, grain intake, and ADG compared with Control calves. Hay provision also increased rumination (25 vs. 15% of 24-h observations in Control) and eating time (5.5 vs. 2% in Control). Abnormal behaviors were seen in all calves. Hay provision reduced some of these, including NNOM (5 vs. 9% in Control). There was no difference in NNOM between calves fed hay in a pipe or bucket, even though Bucket calves consumed more hay (178 vs. 129 g/d in wk 6) and tended to spend more observations eating hay than Pipe calves (4.5 vs. 3%). Hay provision did not affect other behaviors: drinking water (0.5%), grooming (3%), or tongue flicking (3%). We also found evidence of other abnormal oral behaviors that have received less attention. Calves showed signs of polydipsia, and displayed excessive grooming, the latter indicated by overall duration, number of bouts per day, and duration of individual bouts (up to 25 min). Tongue rolling was expressed at low levels (up to 0.4% of intervals) but by 85% of calves. Feeding hay, both in a bucket and using novel methods, was not enough to counteract the welfare challenges associated with individual housing and limited ability to suck milk (<1% of time). Provision of long hay, regardless of presentation method, promotes rumination, improves performance (higher grain intake and ADG) and reduces at least some, but not all, of the considerable abnormal oral behaviors these calves performed.

Blair C. Downey, Cassandra B. Tucker
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22413

October 2022

Abstract:

Evaluating the effectiveness of colostrum as a therapy for diarrhea in pre-weaned calves. By Carter et al., page 9982. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of providing colostrum to young dairy calves with diarrhea as a means to improve the resolution of diarrhea and growth through the pre-weaning period. Fecal consistency score, the severity of diarrhea, weight throughout the study, serum immunoglobulin G concentration, and the original source of the calf were recorded. It was determined that feeding colostrum at the onset of diarrhea could reduce the days to resolve diarrhea and improve growth during the preweaning period.

H.S.M. Carter, M.A. Steele, J.H.C. Costa, D.L. Renaud
Journal of Dairy Science, DOI:https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22187

January 2022

As one of the top scourges to calf raisers, cryptosporidium is an ever-present challenge that rarely takes a holiday.

If you’re a calf raiser, you probably know about cryptosporidium. It’s that pesky parasite that causes scours in young calves, spreading via oocysts that pass through animal feces.

Seasoned calf managers recognize crypto scours that generally strike in calves a few weeks old. While usually not fatal, they set back calf growth and immunity, and increase labor demands due to necessary supportive care. This bulletin from Kansas State University emphasizes that there are no effective or approved treatments or vaccines for cryptosporidium scours.

October 6, 2021

A team of Brazilian researchers recently conducted a study on the longer-term impact of colostrum on calves’ ability to tolerate cold and regulate their body temperatures. (Maureen Hanson)

One of the many benefits of colostrum is that, when fed shortly after birth, it provides a source of internal warmth for the newborn calf.

But a team of Brazilian researchers recently conducted a study on the longer-term impact of colostrum on calves’ ability to tolerate cold and regulate their body temperatures.

February 2021

“Calves are an investment in your future herd and profitability of your farm,” said Margaret Quaassdorff, dairy management specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension.