Health and Nutrition: A Crucial Collaboration for Calf Performance

The relationship between nutrition and calf health influences longevity and production performance throughout an animal's life. 

Optimising calf health and nutrition from day one right through to the first lactation will help to optimise cow longevity and lifetime milk yields.

In Season 3, Episode 5 of the /wynnstay-agri-hub-podcast, Millie Hendy our Calf & Youngstock Manager and Charlie Moss from Horizon Vets give an update on some of the latest updates in the industry around calf nutrition and health.

One of the newer recommendations when it comes to feeding calves is feeding more milk or as Millie describes it, feeding to appetite. 

A few years ago, typically calves were receiving four litres a day, and now we’re encouraging producers to feed eight to ten litres a day – this is all related to genetics which can be explained best by using the queen bee analogy.

The queen bee and workers all have the same genetics, the only difference is the queen bee is fed royal jelly and 10 times more than the worker bees. Therefore, she grows rapidly and has a longer lifespan (three years vs two months) – she is also more mature and lays 2,000 eggs per day compared to the worker bees. 

Ultimately, there are so many benefits to feeding more milk including:

• Calf performance
• Calf health
• Heifer milk production
• Longer lifetime milk production

Read more: Feeding higher volumes of calf milk - Dispelling the feeding myths

Read more: Feeding Calves - Why should we encourage more litres fed per calf?

To ensure calves are receiving the optimum concentration of milk it is best to speak to your milk powder manufacturer.

As a rule of thumb, whole milk has a typical concentration of 12.5% DM, which is why there is a minimum recommendation of feeding 125g/litre and a maximum of 150g/litre – all Wynnstay milk powders are safely recommended at this level. 

There are a lot of milk replacers on the market with a combination of skim or whey, but in terms of performance there is very little difference; the calf’s environment and the amount of milk it receives will have a greater influence.

When choosing a milk replacer, it’s about looking at what else is in there – for example, young calves need a digestible milk powder which includes dairy protein as opposed to vegetable protein.

• Aim to feed four to six litres of colostrum 
• Ensure calves are drinking eight litres of milk within the first week
• Calves can take up to four to five litres per feed
• Use teats rather than buckets
• Ensure there’s an even split between feeds
• Calves love consistency - Feeding the same concentration, at the same time of the day, at the same temperature is important
• Look at the weaning curve – cut milk intakes over three weeks and ensure they are achieving optimum intakes of creep, straw and water

The majority of disease outbreaks can be avoided, as often it is down to poor hygiene. 

When speaking to the calf team on farm, the reason for a scours outbreak tends to be down to one of the below: 

• Poor communication
• Lack of attention to detail 
• Overstocking 
• Poor hygiene – bedding or environment

When it comes to deciding on whether to vaccinate calves, there are a couple of things to consider: 

• History of disease on farm
• Disease pressure

After 24 hours, the ability for colostrum antibodies to be absorbed stops, however prolonged colostrum can still have a positive effect on gut health, as long as the milk is pasteurised and it’s not being pooled too extensively. It is also important to consider the risk of Johnes before doing so. 

Antibiotic use has been on the agenda for some time and all livestock sectors are aware of overuse. Therefore, it is important that we move away from their inclusion being common practice.

Producers should be looking at what preventative measures and protocols can be put in place, so that they are not needed. It is possible that if everything is managed correctly at a farm level, that disease can be kept to a minimum without them. 

By optimising calf gut health through good health and nutrition there should not be a requirement for blanket treatment, they should only be required when an outbreak happens.