Post Day 1 Feeding Colostrum in Neonatal Calves

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Kylie Nickels

Feeding colostrum is one of the most important practices in a young calf’s life. Ensuring that the calf receives the correct quality and quantity in a timely manner, with clean equipment will help provide the calf with the passive immunity that it needs to fight off any diseases and help make for a healthier calf in the future. In some recent studies, it has been shown that feeding small amounts of colostrum after the first day of birth can improve gastrointestinal health and create a healthier, more productive calf. The best recommendation to achieve this is by adding colostrum powder to whole milk or milk replacer for the first two weeks of life.

How does colostrum support the gastrointestinal tract during days 2-14?

Whole bovine colostrum offers a combination of factors that supports and develops the small intestine which is still developing through the first two weeks of life. Colostrum has many beneficial factors that help serve this purpose such as globulin proteins, oligosaccharides, colostral fat, nonspecific factors, and growth and stimulants-all which play a strong role in continuously developing the intestinal morphology. Globulin proteins help support gastrointestinal health and productivity. It is important to feed numerous types of oligosaccharides in order to influence the bacterial and microbial populations. There are over 40 types of oligosaccharides in colostrum that can substantially impact the microbial populations in the gastrointestinal tract compared to regular replacers. Colostral fat helps provide a great energy source for growth and maintenance. While nonspecific factors such as lactoferrin, lysozyme, and lactalbumin can help eliminate harmful substances in the gastrointestinal tract. These factors can in return help create a healthy balance of microflora in the gastrointestinal environment. Growth factors and stimulants are used to help grow various tissues throughout the body and gastrointestinal tract that help aid overall health and digestive productivity of the calf.

Results

Implementing colostrum in milk until 14 days of age has shown significant results. Calves fed added colostrum replacer had increased grain consumption and higher average daily gain. The antibiotic usage in calves supplemented colostrum until day 14 had a 57.7% lower antibiotic usage rate than those calves without substitution. These calves also had less abnormal manure, respiratory issues, and navel infections.

Steps to Post Day One Use:

Step 1: Determine the challenge level of the calf program- low (<5% mortality), moderate (5-8% mortality), and high challenge (>8% mortality).

Step 2: Calculate grams of colostrum powder to add to whole milk or replacer.

Step 3: Add colostrum powder to the milk replacer or whole milk and mix at 110-120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Contact one of your Insight FS Nutrition Specialists to help you get started with this program!

((Chamorro et. Al J Dairy Sci. 2017 Vol 100 (2))

(Berge et. Al, J. Dairy Sci. 2008, 92:286-295)