A3O-lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 7,1989
Pipeline
i Glenn A. Shirk
v Extension
Deiry
Agent
Dairy Replacements
Every herd needs replacements.
The question is, should you buy
your replacements or should you
raise your own. Buying replace
ments has some advantages as
well as some disadvantages.
You can probably buy replace
ments cheaper than you can raise
them, unless you have a high-pro
ducing herd and are looking for
heifers of equal or superior quali
ty. They can be a source of super
ior genetic material for upgrading
your herd if you know their breed
ing and if you choose them wise
ly. You can also purchase replace
ments that will calve when you
have the greatest need for more
milk.
Not raising heifers and buying
replacements as you need them
frees up more of your land and
bam space for housing and feed
ing milking cows, which give a
greater and quicker return on the
dollar; money spent on calves and
heifers gives no return until 1-2
years later.
However, when you buy re
placements you increase the risk
of exposing your herd to new dis
eases. If this does happen, it could
erase all the benefits discussed
above.
Some of these risks could be re
duced if you can find someone to
raise your heifers for you, prefer
ably without them being mixed
with cattle from other farms. You
also have more opportunity to se
lect which service sires are to be
used.
Raising Growthy Heifers
If you do decide to raise your
own heifers be determined to do a
good job. Keep only those heifers
of good breeding, the ones that
have the best potential for contin
ued improvement of the herd.
Be sure you have adequate
housing and feeding space for
them; otherwise, downsize your
heifer herd to fit your facilities and
do the best job with the few that
you do raise.
A stunted heifer, grown in over
crowded, inadequate facilities can
be very costly: you’ll pay this cost
the rest of her life in the form of
reduced milk production and high
er culling rates. It’s a cost you
may not see, but it is very real.
As you design, or evaluate,
your heifer management program,
set some goals for yourself. Exam
ples are: Calf mortality less than 5
percent; heifer culling from wean
ing to freshening lass than 5 per
cent; heifers ready to breed at
13-15 months at 750-800 pounds
and ready to freshen at 22-24
months and weighing 1200
pounds; first service conception
rate to A.I. bulls over 60 percent,
first lactation milk projections
nearly equal to herd average, etc.
If some of these goals are too high
for you, set goals that are more re
alistic and applicable to your
situation.
Heifers should freshen with
good size, in good enough flesh,
and with healthy appetites so
they’U calve with ease, be ready to
start a productive lactation and dry
off in good enough flesh to be
ready to start their second lacta
tion with a running start. Unlike
our heifers of yesteryear, today’s
productive heifers have to be well
grown by the time they freshen;
the nutrient demands for high lev
els of production are so great that
very few nutrients are left over for
growing out undersized heifers
during the fust lactation.
Healthy Calves
A healthy calf starts with a good
dry cow program and a healthy
dam.
To reduce infections at calving
time diarrhea and navel illness
of the calf plus udder and uterine
infection of the dam provide
the dam with a clean, dry sanitary,
well-ventilated maternity area. A
well-sodded pasture lot is still orfe
of the best places. During incle
ment weather, indoor pens are
m
necessary. Not using pens during
good weather allows them to be
cleaned, sanitized and idled for
long periods of time, thus helping
to break up disease cycles.
Separate the calf from the dam
as soon as it is bom, even before it
has a chance to nurse, and put it in
an individual pen. This will help
prevent the calf from ingesting
manure, which is very important if
you are trying to prevent the calf
from acquiring Johne’s disease.
Also clip the navel and dip it in a
disinfectant. The calf pen should
be clean, dry, well bedded, draft
free, well ventilated, and away
from older animals. The aim is to
protect the calf from inhaling
germ-laden air and from having
nose to nose contact with other
cattle. Remember, fresh air is
more important than warm air.
Give the calf about 3 quarts of
colostrum milk, preferably within
30 minutes of birth, and a total of
6 quarts within 24 hours of birth.
The aim is to have colostrum be
the first thing that a calf ingests.
This is very important since the
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calf has no antibodies to fight off
infection when it is bom; it is al
most solely dependent upon colos
trum. The absorption rate of im
munoglobulins from colostrum,
through the intestine and into the
bloodstream is very high during
the first 30 minutes after birth;
very little absorption occurs after
24 hours.
The quality of colostrum is also
important, and will vary from cow
to cow. Colostrum from heifers
and from cows that have been
milked before freshening often is
of lower quality. For this reason, it
is desirable to have a supply of
frozen, good quality colostrum in
reserve. The quality of colostrum
can be measured easily by a colos
trometer.
The most stressful time for a calves starts about 3 weeks before
calf is about 3 days of age. The you see the scours. By the time
above practices will help calves you see the scours or count the
get through this crucial period, oocygts in the manure much dam-
You may also want to discuss with age has already been done. Pre
your veterinarian the need for spe- vention needs to start soon after
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you on a vaccination program for
your herd.
Scours can be infectious and
nutritional. Infectious scours can
be prevented by good sanitation
and by immunization efforts, such
as those discussed above. Keep
nipples, buckets, and mangers
clean, and keep feed and water
fresh.
To prevent nutritional scours,
limit milk intake to about 8-10
percent of body weight If milk re
placers are used, choose good
quality replacers that are easily di
gested by calves; they generally
contain more dairy products and
fewer plant products.
Coccidiosis
Coccidiosis can also cause
scours in calves, but the damage to
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