Colostrum storage
Natural fermentation at ambient temperatures:
- Store in a cool place at 5o-15oC
- Use plastic or stainless steel containers with a lid
- Break the crust and stir twice daily to keep fermentation alive
- Use only clean water for cleaning and avoid detergents
DO NOT add extremely bloody colostrum, mastitis milk or milk treated with antibiotics.
Colostrum can be kept for up to three months if stored in this way. It is recommended to feed within two weeks as nutrient and antibody content and palatability decline after that time.
Bacterial inoculation of colostrum:
Colostrum can be preserved with yogurt. This can be done by adding a dried packet of yoghurt like EasiYo® to the first batch of colostrum. Further containers of colostrum can be seeded with part of the initial batch.
Feeding
Suckling is important for healthy milk digestion. The calf should be fed standing with the head up. Drinking from buckets at ground level is not advised.
If using calf milk replacer (CMR), follow the instructions. Use one brand throughout the feeding programme. Any changes should be made slowly over three or more days.
Important management practices:
- Mix CMR just prior to feeding
- Store powder in a cool, dry area free of rodents and birds
- Mix thoroughly with warm water. Add powder to half the final volume, mix, then top up with water as required
- Milk is best fed at 18o- 20oC
- Rinse equipment thoroughly after use with clean, fresh water
- Look for blocked teats, slow feeders, and bullying by other calves
- Use a compartmentalised feeder for the first three weeks so that each calf gets the same volume
Aim to feed 10% of the calf's body weight in milk per day, i.e. a 40kg calf gets 4L cows milk or 4 x 125g/L of CMR.
Recognition and management of sick calves
Carefully observe every day.
Healthy, happy calves will move around the pen, play, feed eagerly and stretch after getting up. They will have a shiny coat, bright eyes, wet noses, dry navels, and dry hind legs.
Look: recumbent, dull, sunken eyes, droopy ears, swollen wet navels, lameness, disorientation, separated, not playing, slow to feed, discharge (blood, mucous, pus) from the nose or mouth, hair loss.
Listen: grinding teeth, bellowing, coughing.
Smell: ammonia, milk, meal, hay, water.
Taste: colostrum, milk, feed, fibre and meal, salt, mould, metal, rust, sweet.
Isolate and treat sick calves as soon as possible. Spray pens of sick calves daily with a complete anti-viral spray.
The calf's temperature is influenced by ambient temperature. Take the temperature of a healthy pen mate before you take the temperature of a sick one for comparison. Generally a temperature greater than 39.5oC is considered hot.
Post mortems can be beneficial to rule in or out certain diseases. They can be done quickly and give good information.
Faecal sampling, dehydration levels and temperature results are also important.
