Calf Health Blueprint: Laying the foundation for productive cows

You wouldn’t pour a concrete foundation after the house is built. The same is true for replacement heifers — the most important work happens before anyone is thinking about milk in the tank. In heifer raising, there is no shorter, or more critical, window than the first few weeks and months of a calf’s life. Getting calves started right means setting cows, and your dairy, up for success.

Pouring a strong foundation

The moment a calf is born, the clock starts ticking. The ability to absorb maternal antibodies declines rapidly, making colostrum management a race against time. Most antibodies from colostrum are absorbed primarily in the first 12 hours, some up to 24 hours.

Failure of passive transfer reduces long-term performance in dairy cattle, including delayed time to first calving, decreased average daily gain, and decreased milk and fat production at first lactation.^1-3

The three Q’s: Quantity, quality and quickness are vitally important to colostrum management. Previous recommendations for quantity have been approximately 10% of the calf’s body weight consumed within the first 12 hours. At this quantity, quality recommendations are a green reading on colostrometer or 23% or greater Brix refractometer value.

New schools of thought have questioned these traditional recommendations. Feeding high volumes of colostrum too early may overload the calf’s system and potentially contribute to health issues such as abomasal distention and severe colic. Recent recommendations suggest feeding lower volumes of higher quality colostrum.

If adapting this approach, feed 8% to 8.5% of body weight of colostrum with a Brix refractometer value greater than 25%. This percentage should assure colostrum with at least 75 g IgG/L. With a higher IgG concentration in the colostrum, calves can get greater antibody absorption using less colostrum.

Work with your veterinarian and nutritionist to find resources for managing colostrum and improving antibody absorption. There are smartphone apps available that can help calculate appropriate feeding amounts based on Brix values, calf weight and desired IgG intake.

With any method of colostrum management, it is critical to evaluate the efficacy of passive transfer. Taking blood samples from calves during the first week of life and evaluating plasma IgG can be an indicator of future health and help you evaluate and refine your colostrum management protocols.

The load bearing structure

Colostrum sets a strong foundation for future cow health, but it doesn’t stop there. Once the foundation is set, growth determines how much weight the calf’s structure can carry. Early-life nutrition is one of the most critical steps for influencing the future of the cow. During this time, it isn’t just about meeting minimum requirements; it’s about capturing the calf’s full growth potential when feed efficiency is at its peak.

Proven nutritional concepts in the beef industry may be worth borrowing to enhance dairy calf growth. Beef calves have been observed to nurse more than 10 times daily,⁴ consuming milk with a minimum of 25% to 27% crude protein (CP) and 30% fat. This can result in two or more pounds of gain daily.⁵

Traditionally, dairy calves are fed just twice daily, consuming a total of 1 pound of 20% crude protein, 20% fat milk replacer mixed in one gallon of water. This method achieves approximately 0.4 pounds of gain per day.

Dairy producers can increase calf gains by following a more intensive or biologically normal feeding program. An example of this kind of program follows:

Milk replacer: 28% CP, 15%-20% Fat
1 week of age	Feed 1.8 lbs. per day in 2 feedings of 2.5 quarts each
Week 2 through weaning	Feed 2.6 lbs. per day in 2 feedings of 3.5 quarts each

 

A more intensive program such as this can improve replacement heifer size and increase milk production in the first lactation by 1,000 pounds or more.^6-7 It also can have a positive impact on mammary system development, supporting a younger age at first calving and better lifetime performance.

Established benchmarks can help you evaluate your early nutrition program. The Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (DCHA) publishes its “gold standards” for growing efficient, healthy and profitable animals, including ADG targets by age and mature bodyweight. According to these benchmarks, calves should achieve 1.7 to 2 lbs. of ADG.⁸ Use these targets as a guide for monitoring the success of your calf nutrition program.

Reinforcing the structure with vaccines

While colostrum is an important foundation for calf health, it isn’t designed to carry calves through every challenge ahead. Passive immunity is temporary and that’s where vaccines come in. A well-designed vaccination program helps calves respond to environmental stressors without sacrificing growth or health.

Intranasal vaccines with protection against viral and bacterial pathogens are often the first vaccines a calf receives. These types of vaccines are not affected by maternal antibody interference that can limit the response to certain injectable vaccines. Intranasal vaccines also offer several practical advantages, including no risk of injection-site reactions, reduced systemic inflammation and a relatively rapid immune response.⁹

Later in the calf’s life, core injectable vaccines can protect calves against clostridial diseases, bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR). Disease pressure varies from farm to farm, with many factors at play. Therefore, vaccination protocols should be developed in close partnership with your herd veterinarian. They can help identify the most significant risks and design a program tailored to your operation.

It’s also important to consider how illness impacts calf performance. An increase in body temperature due to fever increases a calf’s baseline energy expenditure. It is estimated a 2.7F to 3.6F increase in body temperature would increase maintenance energy requirements by 25% to 30%. Maintenance energy must be met before any calories can be used for growth. This increase would translate to using about one-fourth of a 20-20 milk replacer just to keep the calf alive, making it even more critical to keep calves healthy and maximize growth and performance.

Protect your investment

A strong foundation and reinforced immune system can still be compromised if the environment works against the calf. Proper housing helps protect the progress made through colostrum management, nutrition, and vaccination by reducing stress and limiting disease exposure during the most vulnerable stages of life.

Regardless of your housing setup, there are several important factors to consider. First, ventilation is critical. Adequate ventilation helps dilute airborne pathogens, manage humidity and maintain consistent air quality. Effective systems often combine natural ventilation with positive-pressure ventilation to ensure fresh air reaches calves without creating drafts.

Another factor is temperature. Warmth is a critical element for calf development, so the calories calves consume can go toward growth, rather than toward keeping the calf warm.

Finally, don’t overlook comfort and cleanliness. Avoid overcrowding as it increases stress and accelerates disease transmission, undermining even the best health programs. Pens should be equipped with proper drainage to keep calves dry. Maintaining clean pens, feeding equipment, and common surfaces reduces pathogen load and supports consistent intake and growth.

High-performing cows aren’t built in the parlor. Construction starts in the first hours and weeks of life. Long before a heifer enters the lactating herd, your foundational management decisions impact a heifer’s future milk production and the cow’s longevity in the herd.

References

1. Waltner-Toews, D, Martin, SW, Meek, AH. The effect of early calfhood health status on survivorship and age at first calving. J. Vet. Res. 1986;50(3):314-317.
2. Robison, JD, Stott, GH, DeNise, SK. Effects of passive immunity on growth and survival in the dairy heifer. Dairy Sci. 1988;71(5):1283-1287. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(88)79684-8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3135297/.
3. DeNise, SK, Robison, JD, Stott, GH, Armstrong, DV. Effects of passive immunity on subsequent production in dairy heifers. Dairy Sci. 1989;72(2):552-554. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(89)79140-2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030289791402.
4. Kour, H., Corbet, N. J., Patison, K. P., Swain, D. L. Changes in the suckling behaviour of beef calves at 1 month and 4 months of age and effect on cow production variables. Anim. Behav. Sci. 2021;236:105219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105219
5. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle: Eighth Revised edition. Washington DC: The National Academies Press. 2021. https://doi.org/10.17226/25806.
6. Davis Rincker, L.E., M.J. VandeHaar, C.A. Wolf, J.S. Liesman, L.T. Chapin, M.S. Weber Nielsen. Effect of intensified feeding of heifer calves on production parameters of Holstein heifer calves that were allowed to suckle from birth to six weeks of age. Dairy Sci. 2011. 80:2523-2528.
7. Drackley, J.K., B.C. Pollard, H.M. Dann, J.A. Stamey. First-lactation milk production for cows fed control or intensified milk replacer programs as calves. Dairy Sci. 2007;90 (Suppl. 1):614 (Abstr.).
8. Dairy Calf and Heifer Association. Gold Standards. Third Edition. Setting the benchmarks for your herd’s future. Production Standards. 2020;9-12. https://calfandheifer.org/wpcontent/uploads/2020/09/DCHA_GoldStandards_2020_En_WEB-final.pdf. Jul. 23, 2024.
9. Merck Animal Health Study MS-N3PMH-3-19: Efficacy of vaccination in colostrum fed 7-day old calves when using multivalent intranasal vaccine in the face of maternal antibody.