Tuesday, November 12, 2013

It's Not Possible to Get 75% Above 5.5
 
This statement is made about blood serum total protein values for dairy calves on commercial dairies. I just finished summarizing the latest data for a dairy that seems to suggest this is not true.
One of my clients bleeds all of the calves between 36 and 72 hours of age. In the past 12 months for which I have data that is 683 calves.
 
The percent of calves at 5.5 and greater:
 
Date of Summary   Percent 5.5 &>
 
October 2012               95
January 2013               93
April 2013                   87
July 2013                     83
October 2013               94
 
I checked records and found only 24 calves in this period had BSTP below 5.0.
 
  • All calves get first feeding of colostrum within 2 hours of birth.
  • All colostrum is checked for antibody concentration with highest quality fed first feeding to these heifers; nothing below 50g/L or 22 Brix.
  • All calves (small calves an exception) receive 4 quarts colostrum first feeding.
  • All calves receive an additional 2 quarts of high quality colostrum in the next eight hours. 
  • All colostrum samples for monitoring bacteria levels less than 5,000 cfu/ml coliforms, less than 50,000 cfu/ml standard plate count. 
 Just do all these right all the time! [Yes, I do admit that among all my clients, this dairy does the best job of colostrum management.]
 

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