Dr Liz Cox, who oversees agricultural animal care in California, says feeding more to calves earlier, basing their feed on dry matter solids instead of litres and using a step-down approach to the milk feeding program can lead to long-term health and production benefits.
She has also encouraged Australian farmers to feed the first lot of colostrum to calves within six hours of birth.
Dr Cox, who has been hosted in Australia by ProviCo, has met farmers, suppliers and veterinarians in NSW and Victoria to stress the importance of feeding calves early and well.
“Research shows that as we feed calves more, we improve health and gains and we help them to reach the producer’s goal of having a healthy cow that makes more milk,” she said.
Dr Cox oversees the animal care program for California’s Department of Food and Agriculture and also consults nationally with Calf Compas and around the world on calf nutrition and health. Her previous work within the industry included Merck Animal Health (MSD in Australia) and Purina Land O’Lakes.
This was her second visit to Australia and included a forum on calf nutrition with farmer suppliers at ProviCo’s Dennington milk processing facility.
During her week in Australia, she also met with farmers and veterinarians in NSW and Victoria to teach about thoracic ultrasonography of calves.
Dr Cox said farmers should aim to get the first feed of colostrum into calves within six hours of birth to improve immunity and reduce the risk of disease.
“If you can’t do that, ensure you feed the colostrum as soon as you’re able due to drop off of the efficacy in the immunity response,” she said.
Dr Cox said farmers should monitor the colostrum program by testing it and consider enriching lower quality colostrum by using a colostrum enhancer.
“You need to ensure the colostrum is greater than 22 per cent on the Brix reading.”
Farmers should also assess overall colostrum by taking a blood sample from calves 48 to 72 hours after they are born.
“Vets can test the sample for total serum protein which gives an estimate of how well your system is working for feeding colostrum,” Dr Cox said.
After colostrum when moving calves over to milk, she said farmers need to feed 1.5 to two per cent of body weight at kilograms of dry matter of milk solids — and not just think in litres.
“People traditionally thought in volume because they were feeding milk from the vat to calves. Now we can feed milk replacer or milk that has powder added to it so you can’t just think in litres, you have to think in dry matter because it can be a different amount.
“The important thing is how many grams of dry matter fed to calves, which is the same way you would think about how you feed your cows.
Remember that the pre-weaning period has lifelong effects on her health and production.”
At the Dennington forum, Dr Cox said farmers could increase the volume of feed or the number of times they fed their calves each day, but she stressed that consistent feeding routines were vitally important.
She also said there was a limit to how much dry matter feed could be safely consumed by calves, and warned that calves were susceptible to cold stress.
“I advocate twice a day feeding to minimise stresses and while there are ways such as shelters or jackets to protect them from cold stress, the way we feed them can also help.”
Dr Cox recommended a step-down approach to the milk feeding program to promote earlier transition to starter feed.
“Increased feeding of milk solids early in life, grows a larger calf who is then able to eat more starter feed during the steps down in milk offered,” she said.
“Pre-weaning average daily gain above 0.5kg/day can enhance the first lactation performance of heifers. The best indicator that she is ready to wean is consuming 2kg of starter feed daily.”
Dr Cox’s visit to Australia included seven forums at Dennington and Allansford in south-west Victoria, Echuca in northern Victoria, NSW and Tasmania.
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