Building resilience in calves

Nicole Saunders can relate, with expectations of rearing 700 calves this year across three properties at Maffra in Victoria.

“Calf illness outbreaks are a massive drain on farm resources in many ways, but the largest drain is on your mental health,” she said.

“No-one likes illness and death, it drains everyone, as we are all trying our hardest to look after our animals to the highest possible standard we can.

“I don’t think I could even quantify the drain of outbreaks on our labour and mental resources.”

Ingredients for success

Nicole and husband Brendan currently run 1600 milking cows across three properties totalling 780 hectares with the entire herd calving in spring.

Last year Nicole was recommended to try a new additive in her milk, to focus on building the calves resilience and reducing the impact of potential health issues such as scours and salmonella.

“Last season we determined our main cause of death in calves was salmonella,” Nicole said.

“However, we purchased a significant amount of cows that season, so vaccinating wasn’t really an option as we didn’t have the opportunity for the right time intervals of the vaccine and didn’t know if the salmonella strain would be the same as the previous season.”

“So, I talked to our local vet for other recommendations, and she mentioned Celmanax.

“We added Celmanax to the milk at the recommended rate for the first 60 days of life, including the first colostrum feed.

During periods when calves were challenged, we simply doubled the daily dosage rate per head used.

“To ensure Celmanax was mixed consistently, we used a protein shaker to mix it with some milk prior to adding it into the main milk feeder.”

Reducing the incidence and impact of calf diseases

Celmanax is widely used in commercial CMR, whole milk boosters and calf starter rations to reduce the incidence, duration and severity of salmonella, E. coli and crypto infection.

It has also been shown to improve weight gain and productivity during periods of heat stress.

“We previously used a probiotic additive product for the milk, which we did see good results with but was very expensive compared to Celmanax,” Nicole said.

“I think we saw better results with Celmanax and it definitely outperformed in instances of salmonella outbreaks; you could see improvements in calves within 24 hours.

“This season we will be using a probiotic paste at birth and during times of stress and adding Celmanax to the milk including colostrum from birth through to 60 days old.

“We found Celmanax is best used as a prevention, it is not a cure, but it helps calves that are in the very first stages of illness and reduces the amount that need to go on for further medication and treatment.”

Setting up calves for productivity at first lactation

Celmanax is distributed in Australia by Auspac Ingredients. It’s efficacy is supported by numerous trials.

In one study, calves receiving Celmanax supplementation in the milk replacer had reduced pathogenic E. coli shedding and a trend for higher body weight. When followed through their first lactation, these calves produced 195kg more milk, 13kg more fat and 8kg more protein compared to calves fed control milk replacer.

Optimising lifetime feed efficiency

What makes Celmanax so effective is it provides multiple products in one consistent formula.

“Celmanax has definitely lived up to expectations and we will be using it across our entire operation this season,” Nicole said.

“I would recommend it, as compared to other products it is far more cost effective, so would be great for someone who has been hesitant to use a milk additive due to the price barrier until now, and for us, it has outperformed other products.

“Although I haven’t done the research yet, considering the impact it has had on the calves, it could also be useful within the main milking herd.”