Growing great calves
“Great calves make great heifers” and this starts before the calf is even born. How we feed and treat our pregnant cows, the length of the dry period and the conditions in which they calve has an enormous effect on the productivity and survivability of our heifer calves.
Directly after birth it is all about colostrum intake. Many people assume that newborn calves left in the paddock with the dam will receive enough colostrum quickly enough to build up a good immunity.
When this doesn’t happen, Failure of Passive Transfer (FPT) occurs and this can lead to increased mortality and decreased general health.
In 2015 a large New Zealand study was carried out by Emma Cuttance and Winston Mason to test exactly this.
The main questions they were looking to answer were: Is it true that calves don’t suckle off the dam? How can farmers improve calves’ suckling behaviour in the calving paddock?
Observations were carried out across four farms, two in Waikato and two in Canterbury. A scissor lift was used to observe cows and calves 24 hours a day over a 12 day period per farm. A total of 409 calves where observed.
The results
An average of 57% of all calves were fed from their dam in the paddock. (Range 40-87%)
A large variance was found in times taken before 50% of calves had had a feed. Between 1.7 and 7.8 hours.
Calves left longer in the paddock fed more but this reduced after six hours post birth.
FPT occurred in 30% of all calves and was associated with poor welfare outcomes.
FPT at day 1 (before being fed colostrum by the farmer) occurred in 72% of calves (Range 21 -82%)
FPT at day 3 was 85 % more likely to have occurred in calves that had not fed in the paddock. This could be corrected if the farmer gave the calf high quality colostrum (>22g/L) early on day 1.
FPT at day 3 was less likely in calves fed high quality colostrum compared to calves fed lower quality colostrum.
Fewer FPT problems occurred during periods of warmer weather. During periods of rain it was seen that calves appeared to struggle to get up to feed and follow the dam.
Take Home Message
Around half of calves won’t be fed by the dams in the paddock.
This leads to around 75% of calves having FPT if no intervention is taken i.e. tubing of calves with colostrum.
In calves with FPT this can be corrected if tubed early by the farmer with good quality colostrum (>22g/L).
In periods of bad weather calves are much less likely to drink from the dam and we should expect FPT to be higher if no intervention is taken.