Colostrum Management for Dairy Calves

Ruminants have a syndesmochorial placenta that separates the maternal and foetal blood supplies meaning there is no transfer of antibodies between the cow and her calf during pregnancy.  This results in a calf being born that is almost entirely dependent on absorption of antibodies from colostrum for protection from disease in early life.  The delivery of high quality colostrum in the first few hours after birth is the most important management factor determining the health and survival of calves.

It has been repeatedly demonstrated that dairy calves left to their own devices are at very high risk of not consuming an adequate amount of colostrum and have  much higher morbidity (sickness) and mortality (death) rates than calves that have their colostrum intake actively managed.

Dairy Australia’s Rearing Healthy Calves Guidelines talks about the “four Q’s” of colostrum management: Quality, Quickly, Quantity and  sQueeky clean.

Quality encompasses the concentration of antibodies in colostrum as well as the level of bacterial contamination.  High quality colostrum will have a concentration of antibodies (IgG) above 50mg/ml and a low level of bacterial contamination (Total Plate Count < 100,000 cfu/ml and Total Coliform Count < 10,000 cfu/ml).  Bacterial contamination of colostrum will reduce the availability of antibodies to the calf as they are bound up by the bacteria.

Unfortunately, a survey of northern Victorian dairy herds a few years ago (Phipps et al., 2016) found that only 23 % of colostrum samples met the quality guidelines.

The quantity of antibodies (IgG) in colostrum can easily be measured using a Brix Refractometer which are cheap and readily available.  High quality colostrum will have a Brix reading of > 22 %.

Factors that will reduce the quality of colostrum include: a dry period < 5 weeks, mastitis, leaking milk prior to calving, blood contamination.  Age of the cow may be important as older cows tend to have higher quality colostrum as they have been exposed to more pathogens than young cows or heifers.  The volume of colostrum at first milking is also important with cows producing more than 8.5 litres being at risk of lower quality.  Breed is also important with Holsteins producing lower quality colostrum than Jerseys and Red breeds.

Although nutrition of the dam during the dry period and transition period does not appear to have a large impact on colostrum quality - ensuring the diet contains adequate energy, protein, vitamins and minerals is sensible.  

Individual cow somatic cell count has a dramatic impact on colostrum quality.  Poppel et al., (2020) found cows with a somatic cell count at calving of less than 400,000 had double the antibodies in colostrum when compared to cows with a cell count of greater than 400,000.

Vaccination status of the dam is very important.  Vaccination boosters at dry off will ensure the dam has the best opportunity to produce colostrum with high levels of antibodies.  The minimum vaccinations at dry off should include 7 in 1 (clostridial diseases and Leptospirosis) and a scours vaccine (ScourShield - Rotavirus, Coronavirus, E coli).  Salmonella vaccines may be important in some herds as well.

Pooling of colostrum of different qualities only reduces the overall quality and also increases the risk of contamination of the pooled colostrum with bacteria such as Mycoplasma bovis, Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Jonhe’s disease), Salmonella spp. and E. coli. If colostrum is pooled, make sure its “like for like” - don’t mix high quality and low quality colostrum.  Have separate buckets for different Brix % colostrum.

There is no replacement for high quality colostrum. Colostrum replacers, although available in the US and EU, are not available in Australia.

Quickly. The quality of colostrum drops quickly after calving and the time from calving to first milking. Colostrum quality has been shown to drop by 3.7 % for each hour milking is delayed after calving (Morin et al., 2010).  Moore et al., (2015) demonstrated similar drops of 17%, 27 % and 33% in quality with a delay of 6, 10 and 14 hours between calving and first milking.

Timing of the first feeding of colostrum is also critical.  The ability of the calf to absorb antibodies drops rapidly after birth and no more antibodies can be absorbed once a calf is 24 hours old.  A reduction of 25 % in the final blood antibody level in calves fed 3 - 4 litres of colostrum (7.5 % of birth bodyweight) at 0 hours, 6 hours and 12 hours after birth can be seen in the chart below (Fischer et al., 2018). 

Quantity.  It is recommended that all calves receive a minimum of  2 litres of high quality colostrum (Brix > 22 %) within the first two hours of life and a further 2 litres before they are 12 hours old either via a teat or oesophageal feeder.  This equates to about 5 % of bodyweight per feed. It is important to remember that many tube feeders hold 1.8 litres and not 2.0 litres!

Often things do not go according to plan and colostrum quality, quantity or timing of feeding is not ideal.  Adjustments can be made for these factors but it gets a bit more difficult to manage - best to discuss this with one of our vets.

sQueaky Clean.  Bacterial contamination of colostrum will reduce the availability of antibodies that the calf can absorb.  Colostrum should be collected from cows with clean udders and teats into cleaned and sanitised test buckets.  From there colostrum can be stored in cleaned and sanitised plastic buckets with well-fitting lids before being fed in cleaned and sanitised bottles or tube feeders.  All equipment should be rinsed in warm water, then scrubbed in hot water with detergent and finally disinfected with bleach before being allowed to dry.

Colostrum should be fed or refrigerated (or frozen) with in 1 hour of collection.  Bacteria will multiple rapidly in colostrum stored at room temperature for even short periods - they can double every 20 minutes.  Colostrum can be stored at 4 degrees for up to 48 hours without reducing quality and can be frozen for up to 12 months.  It is important not to thaw frozen colostrum in a microwave or in water above 49 degrees as this will damage the antibodies.  A food grade preservative (potassium sorbate) can be added to colostrum which will allow it to be stored at room temperature in the cooler months for 12 hours or at 4 degrees for up to 7 days without loss of quality.

Pasteurisation of colostrum using purpose build equipment is a very effective way of managing bacterial (and viral and protozoal) contamination of colostrum.  Interestingly it has been recently shown that feeding pasteurised colostrum resulted in higher IgG levels in calves compared to feeding non-pasteurised colostrum - probably due to reduced bacterial loads binding up antibodies.  Pasteurisation of colostrum is almost essential for herds dealing with issues involving Mycoplasma mastitis, Johne’s Disease and calf issues caused E. coli and Salmonella in particular. Multiple studies have shown significant reductions in morbidity and mortality in calves fed pasturised colostrum as well as increases in daily weight gain and even first lactation milk yields (Kryzer et al., 2015, Arginenget and Fraile 2016, 2020). The Dairy Tech complete colostrum pasteurisation and management system is available through GVG.

“Squeaky clean” also applies to the environment - from calving paddock or pad through to the calf shed.  If your calving paddock or calving pad looks like the one below - your calves (and your cows’ udder health) really don’t have much of a chance.  The CCDU guidelines for udder health of no more than 1 cow pat / square metre (which translates to being able to walk through a paddock or pad without having to watch where you step) are a good guideline for calf health as well.

The effectiveness of your colostrum management program is easily checked through blood sampling calves that are 24 - 72 hours old. While this has been somewhat difficult in the past with a blood sample needing to be taken from the jugular vein of the calf which is then spun down in a centrifuge before the IgG concentration can be measured - the introduction of a new on-farm rapid calf-side test has made IgG testing of all calves easy and accessible to every farm. 

The ImmunIGY Bovine IgG assay from Bimeda is a simple and rapid test kit that is designed for use by farm staff to determine blood IgG concentration in under 10 minutes utilising a small lancet and collection of a single drop of blood from the nose of the calf.  This on farm test now allows you to know the IgG concentration of every calf and not just a sub sample of calves which means disease prevention and treatment plans can be tailored to specific calves.

The ImmunIGY test costs $30 per calf for the first 100 calves and then about $20 per calf as you only need to buy the cube reader once.

The targets for good colostrum management that achieve adequate levels of antibodies (IgG) in calves are listed below.

The focus around colostrum management has shifted in recent years from simply providing enough antibodies for calves to survive to providing enough colostrum to allow calves to thrive.  Colostrum not only contains antibodies but a range of other nutritional components including a range of growth factors and hormones.    The first day of life constitutes one of the very small windows of opportunity to profoundly affect the lifetime health and productivity of a dairy cow. A good example of this was a study that found feeding 4 litres of high quality colostrum at birth compared to 2 litres (which was all that was needed to ensure calf survival) resulted in improved growth rates to weaning and an extra 600 litres of first lactation milk production (Faber et al., 2005).  The other small windows of opportunity where nutrition has a big impact on subsequent health and productivity are the transition period and early pregnancy through nutritional programming of the foetus (maybe another article sometime?)

It is important to remember that good colostrum management, although critically important for calf health and productivity, will not make up for poor management in other areas such as calving pad or paddock management, calf housing, general hygiene and feeding practices.