The Moos Room™

[music]
[cow mooing]
Emily: Welcome everybody to The Moos Room. We have another special gruesome twosome episode for you today. All right. It is myself and Joe and we are going to be talking about, well, our next several episodes are going to cover a lot of various topics on some things we need to do to get ready for winter and for cold weather and all of those things around the farm.
Today we're going to be talking about specifically dairy calves in the winter, preventing cold stress keeping them growing, keeping them healthy, all of that stuff. We could not talk about something this important without our resident veterinarian, Dr. Joe Armstrong here. Joe, I guess maybe just to kick things off, what would you say when farmers are like, "Hey, I've had trouble with my calves in the winter." et cetera, et cetera. What are some of the first questions you ask or things you want to know about their management or what they're doing or not doing?
Joe: Definitely the first thing I always ask and this is part of my training from Sandra Godden is how much are they eating, what are they eating, how often? All of those things I need to get into nutrition right away because calories are a big factor in the health of calves and whether or not they're growing, especially in the winter when we need more calories to make those things happen.
One of the big things that I look at and some of the studies that have been done is having a reserve of fat becomes really important. If that calf has fat around their kidneys and they have stores of fat in their body, that's energy that's there as a reserve in case they get sick so that when they do encounter something, because all calves are going to encounter some kind of pathogen. It's just part of being a calf. In any environment, you have something there and some energy to fight that off. That's what where the goal is, is to not only create calves that grow really well, which is important for all sorts of different reasons, but also calves that have that energy reserve to power their immune system when they need to.
Emily: Well, I have plenty of fat around my kidneys, so I think I'm good to go for this winter. That's very reassuring.
Joe: I'm sitting in the exact same boat for sure.
Emily: [laughs] When we're talking about, calories and good weight gain and all of that stuff, what are our goals and how do we need to adjust our practices to achieve those goals when it's cold out?
Joe: I think we've talked about heat stress in cattle and where their thermoneutral zone sits and that's where they don't burn any calories to maintain that body temperature and they're perfectly happy. For humans it's right around 68 degrees, that's where most people are happy. Now it goes a little bit either direction. Some people are much happier at 75, which is like my wife.
She loves when it's way too hot. I'm much happier when it's 64. There's a range and for calves that range is between 50 and 68 and that's really what we decide as their thermal neutral zone. If we get below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, we're already in a spot where that calf has to burn energy to stay comfortable and is using energy from food and that fat reserve if they have it in their body to stay warm.
That's what we're really talking about is when we get below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, we have to change our practices and provide more calories because if we don't, they're going to use the calories to stay warm before they use those same calories to grow because they need to stay alive and they're going to do that first before they put those calories towards growing.
Emily: Selfish if you ask me, but whatever, I guess.
Joe: It is. Evolution.
Emily: [laughs] Yes. Do you have any specific recommendations that you give in relation to how you increase that energy in cold weather in the calves' diet?
Joe: For me, there's kind of two different ways to go. We talk about feeding more volume and that's an okay way to go, but it still comes down to what you're feeding. Personally, I prefer whole milk. Whole milk is always the gold standard. Pasteurized whole milk is what's going to give you the best growth and the best health out of those calves if you feed enough.
At some point if you feed a 20:20 milk replacer, you just can't feed them enough to keep them growing in the winter. A lot of studies will show that you level out and you don't gain any weight and if you're not gaining weight, you're not building fat reserves. Now you've got unhealthy calves that don't grow. The idea is to feed whole milk and if you can't feed whole milk, because not everyone can, we want to feed a 26:20 milk replacer if possible in the winter.
Now my goal for feeding calves, even starting day one is a gallon twice a day, which sounds like a lot, but I know plenty of Jersey farms with, Jersey being the best breed, but plenty of Jersey farms that feed one gallon twice a day and they have 90% of their calves doing that by day five. If a little 40-50 pound jersey calf can do it, then an 80-90 pound Holstein calf can definitely do it.
You got to feed enough and it's got to be the right thing because 20:20 is just not going to cut it in the winter. That's really the overall message. 26:20 preferred. 24:20 can do it, but really 26:20 would be best whole milk being the absolute gold standard.
Emily: Joe, you're giving us a lot to think about here with this pre-weaning nutrition that we're doing and pre-weaning growth, really that's what we're talking about here specifically in the winter. Why is that so important? Why are we really wanting to get these calves off to a good start and pushing them?
Joe: Part of it is the health of the calf itself because we know that pre-weaning health events like pneumonia and scours can affect that calf long-term. That can affect performance down the road. That can affect their growth post-weaning, all these different things, so we need to avoid that. Really, pre-weaning average daily gain has been connected to performance first lactation and beyond.
There's a lot of milk on the table when we're talking about that. If we can maximize average daily gain pre-weaning, we can affect the productivity of those animals in their first lactation and beyond. It's not a small amount of milk. We're talking a couple different studies trying to ballpark it here. It would be for every additional pound of average daily gain, we're looking at 1100 pounds of milk in first lactation.
Some studies show a little bit more than that, some a little less, but that's a lot of milk first lactation just by increasing our average daily gain in our pre-reading period. That's really the goal. We're talking about not only having healthy calves that have less problems when they get to lactation, but they're also more productive. It's money. It's just money on the table that if you don't achieve that average daily gain, usually above 1.6 to 2 pounds per day of average daily gain, that's the goal. You can get more milk and more money.
Emily: Seems like a pretty good return on investment by doing that.
Joe: Absolutely.
Emily: Pre-weaning, we've been focusing really on milk and milk replacer, but as we start to transition calves towards weaning and actually weaning them, we have things like starter and encouraging calves to drink water. How does that play into all of this?
Joe: We know that grain plays a huge part in developing the rumen and we need that rumen to be developed post-weaning because that's going to be the only spot that calf is going to get nutrition after we take away milk. A couple different studies done at Penn State where we look at rumens that have been developed on milk only, milk and hay, or milk and grain.
What we see is that the milk and grain diet provides a rumen that actually grows papilla and it's no longer smooth, it's more ready to provide energy and be able to help digest the feeds post-weaning. That's what we're looking for with grain and the starter needs to be offered day one because we need consistent starter intake for five to six weeks before that rumen is actually ready to go.
That's where it gets to be important to offer at day one. If you wean six to seven weeks and that calf hasn't been eating grain from day one, that rumen's not ready and so when you wean, you see a big decrease in performance right after weaning.
Emily: That rumen development is so important because of course as they continue to age, they're going to be going on really high forage diets and a really healthy rumen is going to be vital to their performance lifelong.
Joe: You mentioned water too. Something we see on the beach side all the time is that calves, even when they have access to mom 24/7, they still need to drink water. They absolutely need to drink water to be as productive as they can and to grow as fast as they can. They just need so much water and their hydration is so important to their health and their growth that they can't get it all from the milk, even when they have mom available 24/7.
Water, which definitely tricky in the winter. I'm sure you were growing up feeding calves and trying to get them water was just a huge chore in the winter. I do think it's really important to at least offer it right after the feeding just to have it available because at some point if you've got hutches, it's going to freeze up I know that. I'm trying to be realistic about it but if you can offer it, it's a great benefit to you to do it right after feeding.
Emily: Yes, absolutely. We had hutches on my farm growing up and I remember trying to kick those discs of ice out of the bottom of the pail so I could put fresh water in. It's a thing too where I've always encouraged producers, give them as much as they'll drink, leave a little, and then you're just going to have to go back multiple times a day, especially when it is cold and the water is freezing. Yes, it's more work but again, thinking about return on investment here, that little bit of extra labor just to make sure that calf is staying healthy and getting off to the strongest start possible will be worth it.
Joe: I was picturing little Emily kicking buckets and trying to figure out how mad your dad would get and how many buckets you cracked trying to get those little ice discs out. [chuckles] So cute.
Emily: There were some bucket casualties in this, yes. I will not say how many.
Joe: You had hutches growing up and I think that's a pretty common scenario for a lot of people. What else did you guys do to keep the calves warm or try to help them out?
Emily: Biggest thing with hutches is they're out of the elements and so having enough bedding and I feel like we've talked about bedding on this podcast a lot. I am somebody that I'm just, you need to have a lot of bedding. I get bedding can be a big expense depending on what you're using and where you're getting it from, but again it goes back to that cold stress piece, especially with calves in hutches, we want them to have good what we call nesting and it's exactly what it sounds like.
When they're laying down and curled up sleeping, is that bedding around them really good or are they just laying on top of what's in layer of it? Also again, what is your bedding material? Straw is really good in the winter because you can fluff it up nice and those calves can nest in it really, really well.
Joe: Yes, bedding is huge and it's a windbreak, it's insulation, it's all sorts of different things and it keeps them dry which we all know is super important for staying warm. Did you guys use calf jackets or anything like that too?
Emily: A little bit later on when my brothers were involved in the management we did use calf jackets. I've always been a big proponent of them. I know that some people just hate them and some people swear by them. I think that yes, there's a personal preference thing and if you don't want to do the jackets, I'm not here to say you have to, but then you need to be willing to do extra bedding and bedding more often, adding more bedding, all of that and yes, Joe you were right too, we don't want that bedding to be wet.
Joe was reminding me before we got on here about my, how to know if your bedding is too wet if you need to add more. Kneel down. If you stand up and your knees are wet, the bedding's wet. You need to add more or you need to clean that wet stuff out. Again, it's more labor. It's going to be a little more time, but it is just part of good calf management and again, helping those calves get off to a good start.
Joe: As we summarize what we're talking about today, the big thing is you've got to feed your calves. I know that sounds pretty simple but feeding them the right thing and enough during this winter can really make a huge difference for the health and the growth of those calves. I like to see 26/20 milk replacer or whole milk a gallon twice a day or 3 quarts 3 times a day. The goal for your average daily gain should be the double the birth weight by weaning basically.
1.6 to 2 pounds per day of average daily gain, and you're only going to do that if you feed them the right thing and enough of it and then you worry about all those other things that Emily was talking about with bedding, keeping them dry and warm, comfortable, making sure they have water and starter. All of that's going to help you down the road with future performance and it's going to save you time now because you're going to be treating as many calves which everyone I know loves treating calves and having to give extra bottles of electrolytes, all of that.
Emily: Yes.
Joe: If we can do that, I think that's kind of the wrap on what we're talking about today.
Emily: All right. Well, thank you, Dr. Joe. We made it through another episode with the gruesome twosome. Questions, concerns, scathing rebuttals, you can email those to themoosroom@umn.edu.
Joe: That's T-H-E-M-O-O-S-R-O-O-M@umn.edu.
Emily: We are on Twitter @UMNmoosroom and @UMNFarmSafety. Be sure to visit our website extension.umn.edu for more information. That's it. That's a wrap.
Joe: Bye.
Emily: Bye.
Joe: You don't think we need to get into balancers and trying to do any of that other stuff and total solids discussion? That can be a separate episode if we need to.
Emily: I'm not smart enough for that conversation.
Joe: Yes, you are.
Emily: Maybe. I'm not smart enough right now, how's that?
Joe: [chuckles] That's fair. Neither am I probably.
[music]
[cow mooing]
[00:15:28] [END OF AUDIO]

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