Maine Farmcast

On this episode of the Maine Farmcast, Dr. Glenda Pereira, Assistant Extension Professor and State Dairy Specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, has a conversation with a return guest, Dr. Bethany Dado-Senn about the 5 Cs of dairy calf care. Dr. Dado-Senn grew up on a 500-cow dairy farm with her family in northwest Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her Bachelors and Ph.D. and the University of Florida where she earned her Masters. Dr. Bethany Dado-Senn is a calf and heifer technical specialist for Vita Plus, providing technical expertise to help producers raise the next generation of their milking herd. She resides in Northwest Wisconsin with her husband and daughters, and is the calf manager for her family dairy farm. 

To learn more about Dr. Bethany Dado-Senn– 
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bethany-Dado-Senn 

To learn more about Feed and Water Space Requirements for calves and Heifers from the Wisconsin Dairyland Initiative– 
https://thedairylandinitiative.vetmed.wisc.edu/home/housing-module/replacement-housing/feed-and-water-space-requirements/

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Creators & Guests

Host
Colt Knight
Colt grew up in a coal mining family in West Virginia where they also operated a small family farm and show horse stable. During academic breaks and between schools, he worked in strip mines across the country. Colt earned his B.S. in Animal Science at the University of Kentucky, M.S. in Animal Science at Angelo State University, and his Ph.D. in Animal Science at the University of Arizona in 2006, 2012, and 2016, respectively. In the fall of 2016, he worked on a postdoc with Dr. Derek Bailey at New Mexico State University. Since 2017, Colt W. Knight works as an Assistant Professor of Extension for the University of Maine where he serves as the State Livestock Specialist. He teaches Introduction to Animal Science (AVS 145) and runs the Maine Grazing Behavior Lab. The core focus of the Grazing Behavior lab revolves around designing and manufacturing livestock tracking collars, engaging in applied grazing behavior research, and assisting other researchers with technology to interpret animal behavior. Dr. Knight’s research is broadly focused on selecting animals uniquely adapted to landscapes and promoting sustainable agriculture. Colt is the current chair for the Society of Range Management Livestock Foraging Behavior Committee, as well as, the North East Region Chair for the National Association of County Agricultural Agent’s Teaching and Educational Technology Committee. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Ecological Processes. Colt is actively engaged in outreach and has delivered over 150 seminars on livestock production since starting his career at the University of Maine.
Host
Glenda Pereira
As the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Dairy Specialist, Dr. Pereira conducts applied research and develops educational programs for dairy and livestock producers across the state of Maine and New England. While the Holstein breed is near and dear to her heart, Dr. Pereira admires the Normande breed and her favorite dairy products are sour cream and ice cream.
Host
Rachel White
Rachel is a Sustainable Agriculture and Livestock Educator based out of Hancock county. Her objectives include education, research, and programming about agriculture in Washington and Hancock counties and with small ruminants and poultry across the state. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Maine researching risk of parasite transmission from wildlife to small ruminants and risk reduction methods, including pastured poultry. Her social science work looks at farmer and veterinarian knowledge, attitude, and practice for small ruminant health management and the challenges they encounter with this topic. Rachel is also involved with the University’s One Health and the Environment NRT program. She is plans to include a One Health framework into her programming to address human-animal-environmental health challenges in Maine’s agricultural community. On her farm, Rachel has Finn sheep, laying chickens, seasonal broilers, pigeons, horses, and various fruits.

What is Maine Farmcast?

The Maine Farmcast features weekly conversations with experts from across the country sharing insights and advice for both new and seasoned farmers running operations of any size. Hosted by three livestock specialists from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the show brings you world-class expertise paired with practical advice about how to apply cutting-edge research to improve the efficiency and sustainability of your farming operation.

Glenda Pereira:

Welcome to The Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Doctor. Glenna Pereiro. I'm an assistant extension professor within the University of Maine Cooperative Extension as well as an assistant professor within the School of Food and Agriculture. And today, we have a return guest, Dr. Bethany Dado-Senn.

Glenda Pereira:

And so we're gonna be talking about the 5 Cs of calf care today. And so, Bethany, do you want to state what those 5 Cs are?

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Absolutely. Yeah. So we're lucky in the calf business. There's lots of different Cs we can use when we talk about management. So maybe if you're listening, you can guess what some of these are, and maybe some of them are different.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

But these are the 5 things that I think are kind of the non-negotiables when it comes to raising, healthy and comfortable calves. So those c's are colostrum, consistency, comfort, calories, and cleanliness. So let's dive into the first C of colostrum. Many of you in the audience are probably rolling your eyes because you're sick of hearing about colostrum but it is immensely important. If we don't get this first step right, we are setting ourselves back for the rest of the pre weaning stage.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

And as somebody who raises calves herself, anything that I can do to make my job easier, I'm going to do. And getting colostrum right is probably the best way to do that. So when I talk about a successful colostrum program, I'm focusing on another, set of letters now. I'm focusing on the 4 Qs, and those are quality, quantity, and quick. So quality.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Not every farm is going to do this, and I'm fine if you do this on a spot check basis, but look at the quality of your colostrum. We're really looking for a BRICS score of greater than or equal to 22%. And BRICS can be measured on a refractometer, and it just basically is a proxy for the immunoglobulins in the colostrum. So 22% BRICS equates to about 50 grams per liter of immunoglobulin G or IgG as maybe you've heard it called. And so this IgG is one of the main reasons why we feed colostrum.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

It, provides the passive immunity to a dairy calf that doesn't have a great immunity of its own. Semi regular basis is a great way to say like, oop, I'm very commonly hitting that 22% or man, my colostrum is always under. If it's under, providing some additional colostrum replacer in the colostrum can be a good option for you, or adding a second feeding. And, that is great across the board no matter whether or not your quality is good or not. Quantity, we wanna offer it about 10% of body weight, which nobody's out there doing that math.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So if you have smaller breed animals or just smaller Holsteins, that's about 3 quarts. Your typical or larger size Holsteins, that's gonna be about 4 quarts. So, 2 of the general 2 quart bottles, you wanna get into a calf. I am fine if you tube that or you bottle feed that. The research says that both lead to good absorption.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Quickly, we want to target within 2 hours after birth, and if that's not attainable, within 6. I know this one gets to be a challenge for some of our smaller operations that don't have, staff on farm 247. My suggestion there is to kinda look at your historical data and say, like, do I have a lot of overnight cabins where this is an issue? And then also prioritizing making maternity the last thing you look at before you leave the farm and the first thing you check when you come back. Anything to reduce that time.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

And then finally, squeaky clean. The threshold here is we want our bacteria count in our colostrum to be less than 50,000 CFU per mil. I would tell you nobody's really checking that, on farm. But basically, all I'm looking at as a cast specialist when I go on farm is when I, plate your colostrum on a petri dish, does it turn the petri dish brown full of bacteria or does it stay purple? And generally speaking, it turns brown.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So I think this is one that is probably a big struggle on a lot of farms, but just monitoring, your harvesting equipment, your feeding equipment, putting your colostrum in a fridge or freezer, and then possibly heat treating our waste to combat that.

Glenda Pereira:

And I just wanted to mention, so the reason why we do it quickly as possible and why that's really important, and I really liked your suggestion of the maternity pen being the the last thing and the first thing you do when you leave and and come back to the farm, is because absorption of larger proteins that are in colostrum, get harder to absorb after that 24 hour mark from when the calf is born. So so so the absorption of colostrum and and the time when you feed that colostrum is is really important. So maybe that that's why it's really critical, so I really like that suggestion.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So I like to describe it as, the gut has its doors open when the calf is first born to let that protein come through. That leaving an open door isn't good for all that bacteria that calf is gonna face. So she likes to close her gut up. And so everything we can do to help those IgGs pass through while the door is still open, the better. And that's another reason why I love second feedings because oftentimes we're offering that still in the first 24 hours.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

And so while the gut door isn't quite as open, it's still a little bit open. So I find that to be a huge rescuing factor on our own operation even. I pull serum total proteins, which is, what you look at on the calf side after she's consumed her colostrum, to see how successful your program was. And we generally tend to have total proteins that score either, good or excellent, and I am convinced that it's because of our second and third feedings of colostrum and transition milk.

Glenda Pereira:

Yeah. No. That's fantastic. And colostrum is the first line of defense. Your vaccination program can be the best on the planet for calves.

Glenda Pereira:

But without that colostrum, you you know, you may not have the performance, that you could have. So, this is really the first line of defense. So those are fantastic fantastic, management strategies. Thank you for that.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Yep. One last thing I'll say about colostrum, and then I'll move on because, again, probably some eye rolling out there. But if if you're hearing all of these and one, it makes you overwhelmed or 2, you're like, man, I'm not hitting any of these. This is a great time to bring in an extension educator like doctor Glenda or a cast specialist in your area to do things like pulling serum total proteins to test your colostrum, to monitor your maternity and say, like, hey, here's some areas of opportunity that I see that are, either easy to implement or that we can put a plan together so that, we can take steps in the right direction to to make this first c really that easy first step. And with that, I will move on to the second c and that is consistency.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So dairy calves, really like any baby, any mammalian baby, they thrive on consistency. So everything that we can do to provide them a consistent environment, the better. And this is easy because for the most part, it's free. Consistent feeding times, consistent feeding temperatures, offering the same volume relatively speaking. Obviously, sometimes we have step up and step down parts of our program, doing everything we can to make sure that we are providing a consistent space for our calves can really help them thrive.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

I don't know if there's anything else you'd add to that, Glenda.

Glenda Pereira:

Nope. I really like that. Yeah. And it's, with feeds too, I think, you know, trying to remain as consistent as possible. So if you're feeding, you know, hay and starter and water, do that every day.

Glenda Pereira:

Don't, you know, swap out, you know, today, no water. Tomorrow, water. And do that consistency because, as we know, calves undergo a lot of stress during the weaning period when they transition, to no milk, or if you're in a step you know, if you're if you're in a step down program, but they're gonna get reduced milk in that weaning period. And we wanna minimize as many stressors during that time. And so implementing a lot of these things and being consistent with it will reduce that stress that they'll experience during the weaning period.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Free choice is kind of how I like to describe it. And so that might mean that if you're feeding, like, your starter and your hay in the morning, like, that's something that we do, We make sure that the afternoon feeding, somebody is checking to make sure that there still is access to that starter into that hay. And that it's clean, not moldy, not wet with urine, wet with rain. And all of those little things can make a really big difference in terms of calves having consistent access to what they need. In a kind of a similar strain, the next c is calf comfort.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

And so that is more looking at the surrounding environment. When we think about the time that we spend in front of our calves providing them the things that they need, it's actually a pretty small proportion of the day. And the rest of the time, they are out there living their life in their environment. And what we can do to make that environment as comfortable as possible can make a big difference. So, bedding is a big one.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

A main is to my understanding a relatively humid climate and I would imagine kinda snowy winters and, rainy summers, hopefully, usually. But that means that moisture goes into the bedding pretty quickly. So keep a close eye on the bedding frequency that you need to have either in your individually or group housed facilities. Oftentimes, group housing bedding is cleaned out once a week, and, individual housing is usually not cleaned out, but, like, on our own operation, we are adding bedding every single day. A good way to test your bedding comfort is to do the knee test.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So just kneel in your calves's bedding for 30 seconds, and if you stand up with dirty knees, that's a sign that something needs to change. Some changes you can make there, again, are more frequent bedding or frequent bedding removal, but also adding some, moisture wicking components. So sawdust under your straw, gravel under the sawdust, different ways to kind of drain out your facilities can make a really big difference. The other aspect of comfort, feel free to listen to the last podcast episode about heat stress abatement. But basically maintaining, an comfortable environment from the weather.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So under heat stress, offering ventilation and shade, under cold stress, under winter weather, having, high bedding volume to promote nesting, and offering enough, nutrients for that calf to combat the cold. So that gets us through the 3rd c, and this is a good segue into the 4 c, calories. Calories are not only important in the winter when they're burning extra calories to stay warm. Calories are important year round. I was told sometimes it's good to have a hill to die on.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

It's good to ruffle a few feathers, so I'm gonna do it. If you are still feeding 2 quarts of a 2020, 2 times a day, that is not enough calories for your calf. That is kind of a program that was very common in the eighties nineties. And while I was not around for for all of that, I can tell you that's we're not raising the same dairy calf anymore. Our calves are larger.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

They have more nutrient demands and quite frankly, to promote their welfare, they need to be receiving adequate nutrition. So, what this looks like is that's closer to at least 3 to 4 quarts of feeding of a milk or a milk replacer. And if you are doing a milk replacer, I really like to have, both a higher plane of fat and protein. You'll hear differences in those recommendations depending on which company you talk to, which professor you talk to in academia. But generally speaking, our most popular milk replacer is a 25% protein and a 25% fat.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

I'm fine if you tick that down to, like, a 22% fat. Very commonly, proteins are ticked up to a 26 to 28%. All of those are fine. Just keep a look at your caps. Are they gaining at appropriate levels?

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Do they look like they have good condition on them? Work with a cast specialist or extension agent or vet to take some weights. A it's a a good benchmark for your average daily gains would be anywhere between about 1.6 to £2 per day. 1.6 being kind of a good baseline and 2 being like, wow. I'm giving them the cream of the crop.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So I'm perfectly fine whatever your benchmark is within there. Calories also looks like offering that starter grain, because eventually, like Glenda said, we are going to take them through the weaning process. I'm fine with an 18 to a 22% crude protein starter. But if we are on that lower percent crude protein, it's really nice to make sure that your intakes are where they need to be. So that looks like a round

Glenda Pereira:

Because something that we don't think about because, I think you mentioned this, you know, we only see the calves for a short period of time. Those calves will become a, lactating animal on in in your herd, and they need a a well developed rumen to be able to process the feed that they're that they're gonna be eating, to be able to maximize their production potential. Right? Cows can produce 30,000 pounds of milk. It's everything else that kind of prevents them, from being able to do that.

Glenda Pereira:

And so rumen development is crucial, and that happens from, right about 0 you know, the 0 to 6 month period is so crucial in helping set up that room and for success. So sorry sorry to to Hold on. No. Interrupt you, but, that's why feeding, starter grain real really, gets, that process, going.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

And I think you bring up a good point, and I'm gonna sound a little hypocritical to everything I just said. But I think oftentimes, we get so caught up in the milk feeding program, and we're just like, oh, here's some grain. When really building that rumen is probably almost more important than maximizing the growth that you get on milk. Both are important, but, rumen development has longer term implications. And my colleague, Noah, has a lot of really good philosophies on this.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

One of which is that dry matter intake is king. When we think about the amount of actual solids in the milk that we're, feeding our calves, really at the end of the day, it's not much more than 2, maybe 3 pounds of actual dry matter. Whereas with starter, by the time they're weaned, we really wanna see them eating anywhere between 8 to 10 pounds of starter. What do you think promotes growth more? 2 pounds of nutrients or 8 to 10 pounds?

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So Right. Anything that we can do to encourage starter intake, the better. So that is kind of having a nuanced milk feeding program to both promote growth but also encourage starter intake. It's like I mentioned before, having a clean, consistent, easily accessible starter for our calves to eat. And then monitoring starter intakes.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

I really like to see by the time that we start weaning, 2 pounds of intake, per day going up to 4 pounds, throughout the weaning process. And like I said, 6, 8, 10 pounds of starter by the end. Now I hear the concern in our audience right now. Like, man, do I have to go out there and weigh my starter? No.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

I think what you can do, though, is take a look at what your typical scoop of starter weighs. Weigh it out once or twice and then say, like, okay. Like, for on our farm, a scoop of starter is about 2 pounds. So I know that I need my calves to be eating a scoop of starter when they start the weaning process or I need to be paying closer attention to them. And by the end, every calf is getting usually about 4 scoops into their bucket.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

So that's a good way to kind of give it a proxy, and get an idea of where you're at.

Glenda Pereira:

Yeah. No. That that's fantastic. And like like we've been talking about, all of these 5 c's, really, highlight a a couple of things, a couple of the components that we're trying, to that we can control, to to have the best successful calf program on our farm. And I just wanted to, lastly add that, these apply to the calves that you keep on farm as well as to the calves that you don't keep on farm.

Glenda Pereira:

And now I understand if you're selling calves, you maybe aren't gonna, implement the same management strategies. But, you know, think about the if you have calves, bull calves that you're selling to a supplier that's gonna raise them for beef, you wanna set them up just as successfully because, again, that performance. You know, it's not gonna be milk production in the first lactation. It's gonna be yearling weight. It's gonna be a, a carcass, weight or carcass traits that that bull calf has.

Glenda Pereira:

So making sure their colostrum again, the first line of defense is gonna save you money, down the line. Their calories and nutrition, the cleanliness, comfort, and consistency, is the same. So that that was the last tidbit I wanted to share, for folks, All the calves that you you raised that stay on the farm or don't stay on the farm, should be provided, these 5 c's.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Yeah. And that's the philosophy we take too. And I think maybe something we don't think about enough too is, like, you are building a client customer relationship with your bull buyer. And the product that you give them does make a difference. We know that we will always have a consistent buying market, which is right now not a problem, but historically it has been.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

But because we know our bowyer knows that we are going to give him a good product at the end that has received multiple feedings of colostrum and, 4 quarts of feet 4 quarts of feeding of milk, which leads to a better product for them at the end of the day. The last c that I'm going to bring up and I'm going to be brief because, I've lectured at you long enough. But this one is also simple. It's cleanliness. This looks like making sure that anything that touches a calf's mouth is clean.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

The process for this is going to be, rinsing out your feeding equipment to get rid of the milk residue, doing a warm sorry. A hot water detergent wash followed by a warm water acid sanitizer wash and then hanging up to dry. This would apply for bottles, buckets. I actually kinda see either people have to wash them every single time where they can avoid not washing them hardly at all. So kind of work that out on your own farm.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

Nipples, any of your, distributing equipment like a taxi or a shuttle or something like that, and auto feeders. This would also apply. Detergent cleanings twice a day at least.

Glenda Pereira:

Fantastic. Yes. Similar to, you you know, newborn care in humans. You know, it's important that especially because when they're so little and more susceptible to disease, that we implement, this really strict cleaning protocol with some type of detergent so that it's just not water. You know, water is great, for hydration, but it but it's not great for for cleanliness.

Glenda Pereira:

Right? It it doesn't, do a good job at, taking away those proteins and that fat, which, isn't a lot of the the, items that calves, are fed with and and that have access to. So with that, I think let's just reiterate the 5 c's, and, finish up our episode. Enough of this lecture for today.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

That's right. So again, the 5 c's are colostrum, consistency, comfort, calories, and cleanliness. The last message I wanna leave you guys with is, I know that feeding calves can sometimes be overwhelming because it feels like there's so many things to do just in the day to day that adding another step to it can be daunting. I want to encourage you to think about these 5 c's and, some of the strategies surrounding them and think about just one thing that you could easily implement that you think would maybe make a big difference in terms of how your calves consume their feed, how they interact with their environment or how they stay healthy. That would, again, like I said at the beginning, make your life easier.

Bethany Dado-Senn:

If you need to access external resources to help with that, again, I'll just reiterate using extension, using your veterinarian or your nutritionist can really help you set yourself up for success. And I'm rooting for you.

Glenda Pereira:

Thanks so much, Bethany. This was a fantastic, episode, and I know that the listeners are gonna have a lot to take away from today. So thank you so much. We'll catch you next time. Thank you.

Colt Knight:

Howdy, folks. Dr. Knight here. The Maine Farmcast wants to hear from you. Please send us your questions, comments, or suggested episodes to extension.farmcast@maine.edu. Again, that is extension.farmcast@maine.edu.