Guests: Dr. Sandra Godden, University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine; Tricia Badillo, Shadycrest Holsteins Dr. Godden opens this episode with a 30,000-foot view of colostrum management. Colostrum management has been a hot topic for decades, and herds still have opportunities to improve. Researchers continue to learn how to advance colostrum management. The basics include the three Qs: quality, quantity, and quickness. Other critical factors are cleanliness and feeding clean colostrum. Dr. Godden also briefly discusses important monitoring measures to assess a colostrum program. Research continues on the value of post-closure feeding of colostrum after the first 24 hours when the gut can no longer absorb antibodies. Several studies have demonstrated improved health, reduced scours, reduced bovine respiratory disease, reduced antibiotic use, and enhanced gain. Tricia gives an overview of their program, where they feed transition milk to their calves. (5:15)
Dr. Godden opens this episode with a 30,000-foot view of colostrum management. Colostrum management has been a hot topic for decades, and herds still have opportunities to improve. Researchers continue to learn how to advance colostrum management. The basics include the three Qs: quality, quantity, and quickness. Other critical factors are cleanliness and feeding clean colostrum. Dr. Godden also briefly discusses important monitoring measures to assess a colostrum program. Research continues on the value of post-closure feeding of colostrum after the first 24 hours when the gut can no longer absorb antibodies. Several studies have demonstrated improved health, reduced scours, reduced bovine respiratory disease, reduced antibiotic use, and enhanced gain. Tricia gives an overview of their program, where they feed transition milk to their calves. (5:15)
Nutrition, adequate dry matter intake, pre-calving vaccination programs, cow comfort, and dry period length are all factors impacting colostrum quality and, to some degree, quantity. Tricia and Sandra describe a seasonal effect observed for colostrum quantity and quality associated with the fall months. While the mechanism of action is unknown, it is thought that day length and cold stress may play a role. Tricia indicates she is hard-pressed to get a 24 or 25 Brix reading on her herd’s colostrum in October. To prepare for this, during spring and summer, the dairy freezes 26-27 Brix colostrum to have on hand for use in the fall.
(14:14)
The relationship between the volume of colostrum produced and its quality is very weak. Dr. Godden recommends using a Brix refractometer to measure all colostrum. Tricia has observed a correlation between the amount of colostrum produced and udder edema, where more edema results in less colostrum. In Tricia’s system, she likes to feed anything over a 24 Brix as a first colostrum and anything from an 18 to a 22 as a second colostrum. They feed four quarts at the first feeding within the first two hours, shooting for the second feeding of two quarts within 8 to 12 hours. (29:18)
Tricia details the calf herd recordkeeping on the farm, which includes weekly serum protein data measured with the same digital Brix refractometer used for colostrum measurements. This data lets the farm see when the program isn’t working and when calves are stressed. The farm also records all treatments and can reflect on previous treatments over the animal's lifetime. She gives an example of a small problem in the colostrum management program having a large impact. The agitator flaps on the pasteurizer were in the wrong position resulting in denatured colostrum.(35:14)
Dr. Godden details some of the critical points in colostrum management, including adopting a routine monitoring program to measure Brix readings in colostrum and follow up with bleeding calves to measure serum protein. Cleanliness is very critical, and she sees a huge opportunity for farms to clean up their colostrum more. Not only do we not want to feed contaminated colostrum from a pathogen exposure standpoint, but research has also shown that high bacteria counts in colostrum negatively impact the absorption of the IgG into the circulation of the calf. This can be monitored by culturing the colostrum being fed, then backtracking through critical control points to determine where the contamination occurs. Tricia describes some of the important steps she’s taken over her 15 years at Shadycrest to improve their colostrum program. (42:57)
Tricia reminds the audience to remember that your first feeding of colostrum is setting up your milking dairy cow. If you set her up to do poorly because her first feeding of colostrum is poor, you're going to end up with a poor milking cow. Every calf born on the farm needs to have supreme colostrum inside of them because they're going to become a supreme cow. Dr. Godden echoes this sentiment: there are long-term economic benefits to the producer for getting their colostrum program right. These include an improved rate of gain, lower age at first calving, and more milk in the first and second lactation. It's well worth your while to get that job done correctly and get that calf off to a good start. (1:01:32)
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Scott (00:00:07):
Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Real Science Exchange, the pubcast we're leading scientists and industry professionals meet over a few drinks to discuss the latest ideas and trends in animal nutrition. Hi, I'm Scott Sorrell. I'm gonna be one of your hosts here tonight at The Real Science Exchange, and tonight we're discussing colostrum with a leading industry expert and an exciting new opportunity to hear from the practical side, from a herd manager that has some farm experience. Gonna share that with us tonight. So let's dive right in. It's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Sandra Godden to the podcast after a very successful webinar on colostrum research earlier this year. In fact, that took place on November 8th, 2023. And so if you've not heard that yet, I would recommend that you go back and listen to that. I think it's, right now, the first one on the top of all the webinars. Also say that that is the 83rd. It's hard to believe, Jeff, that we've had 83 of these webinars so far, but that's where we are right now. Sandra, welcome to the pub tonight. It's good to see you.
Sandra (00:01:14):
Thank you very much, Scott. Pleasure to be here.
Scott (00:01:16):
Yeah. You know, I've heard your name bandied around forever, and this is the first time I've got to meet you. I haven't met you face to face, but looking forward to that. But this will have to do for now. Dr. Godden, I understand you've brought a guest with you tonight. Would you mind introducing her for us?
Sandra (00:01:31):
Yeah, I'm, I'm thrilled to have Tricia Bodi, Bodio, excuse me, Tricia Bodio here this evening. Tricia, I, I don't know how long I've known you. I've lost track of time, probably at least 15 years, I think. So ish. Tricia is the herd manager at Chey Crest Holsteins and in southeast Minnesota. And I've had the pleasure of working with her on projects and students teaching her visits and the like over the years, off and on. And she's, she just does a fantastic job. So I'm thrilled to have her here tonight. Thanks, Tricia, for being here.
Tricia (00:02:05):
Thank you. It is my pleasure also to be here.
Scott (00:02:09):
Yeah. We're thrilled as well, right? It's not often our, every time, that we have a practical aspect to the podcast. So really looking forward to that. Tricia. You know, I think we talked about before, this is a virtual pub with real drinks. So in that theme do you have anything special in your glass tonight?
Sandra (00:02:26):
I confess I don't because I'm, I've still got some work to do, but I can tell you that as we approach the holidays, this is a cup of coffee, mug of coffee. I'm holding it. There will be some Baileys added to my coffee as my little morning treat. Yeah. Through the holidays. So that's what I've got to look forward to.
Tricia (00:02:43):
And I brought a bubbler, made in Wisconsin, right across the river from us.
Scott (00:02:52):
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Good deal. And finally, like to introduce my co-host tonight. Welcome back, my good friend and fellow teammate Jeff Elliot. Welcome back to the pub once again. So tell us what's, what's in your glass tonight?
Jeff (00:03:11):
Well, I'm actually double fisted today. The change of seasons in Texas. The cold's hit, so I've had a little bit of sinus congestion, so I've had a little cough, so I'm trying to prevent that during this. So I've got hot tea with honey on this side to help with that. And if that doesn't work, I've got a good bourbon.
Scott (00:03:31):
Okay, good Bourbon. I'm surprised you usually kind of do tequila. Jeff's one of the only people I know that loves high quality sipping tequila. So I, if I was to have guessed Jeff, I, I would've guessed that's what you were having tonight.
Jeff (00:03:45):
Well, the only reason I went with bourbon was due to this little cough I've got, and that's what my mom started me on as a hot tie. It was bourbon.
Scott (00:03:54):
Yeah. Yeah. Good deal. Well, I'm having a bourbon as well. I'm having a different one, Jeff, that I've not had before. This one is, it's called Long Branch. It says it's a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with Oak and Texas mesquite charcoal refined. Now, I know you're a Texan. I know you're used to mesquite. I don't taste any mesquite. My palate's not that refined, but, but I can say that it's it, it is quite tasty and I approve. So I would recommend this one anyway. Cheers, folks. Welcome to the Real Sciences Exchange Cheer, and here's to a great podcast tonight. Alright, cheers.
Speaker 5 (00:04:30):
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Scott (00:04:52):
Alright, so Sandra, to begin the conversation, let's start with a 30,000 foot overview of what you discussed during the webinar. And, and I'll say the webinar was titled, colostrum is Liquid Gold. Now let's get the most we can out of it. So kind of give us that 30,000 foot overview of it.
Sandra (00:05:15):
Sure, Scott, so as much as maybe some people are bored hearing about colostrum management, we've been talking about it for decades. There is still a lot of opportunity out there in, in the field for herds to improve on, on how they're managing the program. And there's still a lot that the, that researchers and farms are learning about how to advance cluster management and do even better. So during the webinar, we talked about the basics the three cues people have heard about, you know, quality, quantity, quickness, and what we know about that, if there's anything new that we've learned about that. But we also talked about the importance of cleanliness, feeding clean colostrum and, and approaches to getting there. And then we spent a lot of time talking about monitoring, whether you're troubleshooting a problem in the, in the calf program, and you wanna know, is it the colostrum or is it something else, or preferably, it's not just troubleshooting, it's ongoing monitoring that herds adopt the veterinarians can help 'em with just to keep track of the chorum program overall.
Sandra (00:06:23):
And as part of the monitoring we presented, we talked about some new standards, new goals in terms of, of monitoring using serum total proteins or serum bricks readings as an indirect estimator of serum ig. We've got some new standards that were published that have been adopted in the last couple of years by the industry. So we talked a little bit about that as well. I guess one other thing we talked about that is not brand new, but it's getting more attention now, which I'm glad to see, is post closure feeding of colostrum supplements or transition milk, and the value to that. So what I mean post closure is after that first 24 hours, when the gut can no longer absorb these antibodies into the circulation, there is still a lot of value to feeding transition milk or second, third milk in colostrum for the next two to three weeks if you can practically implement it. And there are several studies now demonstrating improved health, reduced scours, reduced bovine respiratory disease, reduced antibiotic use and enhanced gain weight gain. So for herds that can practically implement something like that, a post closure supplementation program, there's a lot of value to be captured there. So I'd move ahead. I'd love to see the industry do more of that if they can.
Scott (00:07:50):
Yeah, that was one of the more fascinating things that I remember about your presentation with us, that aspect of it. And kind of relative to that, circling back to the four qss, the first Q quantity. So to implement a program like that, how much quantity do you need? Have you calculated that?
Sandra (00:08:09):
Yeah, we're, we're still going by, I mean, what we've been doing for several years now, basically saying 10% of the birth weight to the calf, which for a Holstein calf is roughly four ports. You know, 3.8 liters if you're sitting in Canada that's the first feeding, and it has to be reasonably good quality. That's the next queue. But four quarts at first feeding, and then if you can implement it, and I think the last non study said the majority of her to do offer a second feeding of, of a couple of quarts at the next feeding. If, if you can implement that, if it's possible to do
Scott (00:08:43):
So. Okay. First and second feeding. But if you were to implement a program that goes for another two to three weeks and I think that was partial colostrum, how much more have you calculated that? How much in total would you require?
Sandra (00:09:00):
I've personally not calculated it, but I can tell you what the, the, the research projects that have been done to date, how much they've supplemented. So some of them have, they've got a milker replacer feeding program, and they've added a colostrum supplement to the milker placer for the next two to three weeks. And that's typically, well, it's ranged between 10 grams per day of IgG up to as much as 25 grams of IgG supplemented at each feeding. And that seems to have a helpful, beneficial effect. We don't know yet. There needs to be more research as to whether a smaller dose would be effective or, you know, would a bigger dose be even more effective. We don't have those studies yet, but that 10 to 25 grams of IgG per feeding definitely does have a benefit. In the one study that they weren't using a colostrum supplement, they were adding proportionately more transition milk now to pasteurized whole milk feeding program.
Sandra (00:10:04):
They didn't actually report the IgG that was coming in, they just reported the volume of transition milk they were adding. Basically, if they added, I'm trying to do math in my head, which is dangerous. Roughly 25%. If 25% of the milk diet fed 25 to 30% of the total volume fed was transition milk as compared to just straight, you know, straight on whole milk. That's where they saw the biggest benefit in terms of improved health. But again, that was one study, so we don't know what, you know, what the range in the effective doses, there needs to be more research there. But I would encourage herds that can, if you are feeding a pasteurized whole milk feeding program, and if you can put your transition milk pool into that pool, there's gotta be some benefit to that.
Tricia (00:10:56):
Yeah. That's what we're doing. But it's getting mixed in with all of the milk. And so when I listen to your podcast as well, I was really intrigued and trying to figure out in my brain how could I just identify the, you know, in the parlor, those cows that are under three days of milk in milk or three days and under sort that milk, get my employees to actually do it, and then get that in three feedings, which it is gonna be challenging, but that is on my list of things to try to figure out how to accomplish.
Sandra (00:11:28):
Right. And I think if memory serves, Tricia, you, you hand feed individually
Sandra (00:11:35):
Calves, right? Yeah. And so you bring up a really good point, Tricia, and, and this is something the industry is to get around, and this is why I kind of position everything I say, if you can practically implement this dot, dot, dot yeah. Is it practical to try to sort out and only feed the cats that are in the first two to three weeks as opposed to, you know, it'd be much simpler just to put it in the pool and everybody gets fed. What I was describing in the webinar was the research which has focused on the first two to three weeks, because the first couple of weeks, we all know that's the high risk scours period, for example. Right. That's when we see more illness. So that's why those research studies targeted that high risk period for their supplementation, and particularly for the studies that we're supplementing with the colostrum replacer, the colostrum supplement, that's not inexpensive.
Sandra (00:12:29):
No. That intervention, it's not cheap. So you can imagine those people, they wanna, if they're gonna supplement, they wanna supplement just through the high risk period. The theory being they'll be a lesser benefit realized supplementing later. That being said, Tricia, what you're doing may be benefiting, probably is benefiting all caps. And so we just don't have the studies that say, no, you only need to work on the first two to three weeks versus Nah, just supplement everybody. There's probably a benefit to everybody. Yeah. it's just that the research has just focused on this narrow high risk window so far. So, I mean, if you can play with it, Tricia, great. Good for you. Let me know how it goes. But if it's just not practical, you know, that this is the hassle of trying to sort this out, be this c this and that cap that I would just keep doing what you're doing. Yeah. It's benefiting everybody.
Scott (00:13:26):
I was just gonna circle back, you know, from what you're saying, you know, the, the, the purchase colostrum expensive, which means that would put a premium on the colostrum that, that you have your cows make. And I'm kind of curious, is there anything that we can do to increase colostrum output from the cow? Maybe that's different feeding programs management practices, prepartum, just kind of curious if there's any research along those lines.
Sandra (00:13:54):
Sure. And when you say output, Scott, do you mean the quality or do you mean the volume?
Scott (00:13:59):
I, I kind of a little bit of both. Right. I think at the end of the day, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's, it's, what we're really looking to do is maximize as much IgG as possible would be maybe true the first
Sandra (00:14:14):
True. I mean, yeah. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's grams of IgG, harvested grams and IgG delivered, which is a function of quality and quantity. I can comment on, on some of the, the science that is associated with the quality, the concentration of IgG in the colostrum that you harvest, and a little bit on the volume harvested. And then I'd like to hear from Tricia, what, what she's doing, what you're doing cheety crest to try to optimize both quality and quantity. Quality. Quality is still our, our first priority. So there are lots of factors that we can manage that are known to affect colostrum quality or IgG concentration in the colostrum harvested. So I'm just gonna try to remember off the top of my head. So, so nutrition first and foremost, so dry, dry cow nutrition program, it's gotta be correctly balanced for minerals, trace minerals, vitamins, you know, energy, protein, et cetera.
Sandra (00:15:17):
The truth is that if you are feeding a decent, well-balanced ration to benefit the cow, and you've got good feeding management that's gonna promote good dry matter intakes, you're covered in the colostrum front we have to fairly severely restrict this nutrient, that nutrient in order to negatively impact colostrum quality. And if you're gonna restrict that, you're gonna negatively impact the cow as well in her future lactation potential. So hopefully people are on top of their nutrition program and hopefully that's a given. You know, we can't make that assumption, but that's one thing. Let's see, what else. Vaccination programs during the dry period. So in particularly vaccinating dry cows for the enteric pathogens that, that, that's that cause scours and calves. So we're talking about e coli, rotavirus, coronavirus, maybe Clostridium. So there are several different commercial vaccines available that we can give the dry cow or the dry heifer as she approaches calving that couple months before that will cause her to produce antibodies against those specific antigens, for example, e coli than she deposits those in the colostrum and then the calf gets fed.
Sandra (00:16:27):
Now, it should be said that if you do adopt one of these dry cut vaccine programs, you're not going to see a huge bump in the gross total IgG produced. So if you're using, maybe we'll talk about this later, clater or BrickX refractometer to just estimate total IgG, you won't see a huge drop or sorry, increase rather just because you adopted one of those vaccination programs, but we know it's there. You need a very specific, very sensitive test in Eli, a test, something like that, in a lab in order to measure that difference. But it's there. Other factors one is cow comfort. So now we're talking about minimizing, especially heat stress. That's a, that's a big one that obviously negatively impacts the cow herself and her future lactation potential. But it has, it can negatively impact the, the calf in utero and potentially the, the quality of the colostrum produced as well.
Sandra (00:17:33):
And it's, it's, it's a little nebulous there as to what's going on. Part of it could be just, it's a stress event. So producing colostrum is an immune regulated thing. So if you suppress your immune system through stress, that could have a negative impact. The other potential mechanism is if we know with heat stress or other stressors like overcrowding, frequent pen moves, things like that, if we have a negative impact on dry matter intake because we've introduced these stressors or decreased cow comfort, that kind of thing, anything negatively impacting dry matter intake, now we're back to the nutrition problem. Right? She's not getting the nutrition that she needs. So minimizing stressors through the direct dry period best for the cow best for the calf in the colostrum as well. Let's see what else? Oh, dry period length is critical. So we know she needs a sufficiently long dry period in order to rest the gland and get ready, regenerate the gland for high milk production. Next lactation we know we need a minimum of three weeks dry to produce quality colostrum, and we probably need a minimum closer to 40 days dry to produce the volume of colostrum that we wanna see outta these cows. So I lost track. I don't know
Jeff (00:18:53):
What, so Sandra, have you with that, have you seen any differences in the one one dry cow pen versus having a far off in a closeup? Does that any major differences there? Because there's a lot of places with one group.
Sandra (00:19:09):
Yeah. Yep, yep. People are definitely, there's, there's yeah, some motivations on some farms to move to the one group provided that they're still getting 40 days or more dry. That should be fine. But we all understand there's a range in the gestation length of a cow, right? Right. They're not all gonna have at 282 days to carry a calf. So we need to add you know, a margin of safety, you know, add a good at least one week window onto that predicted calving date. So I would aim for closer to 50 days' drive, probably is my target, knowing that some, a lot of cows are still gonna Calvin early. And the cow that's curing twins, if your veterinarian is, you know, they're palpating and saying, yep, twins we know they're gonna calve in a couple of weeks early.
Sandra (00:19:58):
So I would, I would, you know, suggest you dry her off a couple weeks early. If you've got a two group, you know, far off close up dry cow program, Jeff, you would move her into the closeup pen a couple weeks early. Counting on her, counting her early. Okay, so let's drive your length. And then one other really important factor affecting quality is how soon, how quickly you can harvest the colostrum after she calves. So ideally she calves, and then within an hour or two we are going to milker out and harvest that colostrum. That will be the highest concentration of IgG. We recognize though, that not every farm has round the clock labor, and even for farms that do not, every farm is set up where they can, you know, walk her into a designated chute and harvest that colostrum straight away. They might have to wait to take her to the parlor, the next milking.
Sandra (00:20:51):
So my, I guess, practical goal would be to see if you can't get every cow milked out within six hours of calving, or at least get 90% of cows out milked out within six hours of calving, I think you should still have pretty decent quality. And then we can talk about monitoring quality with something like the Brix refractometer, just to know whether or not this is, this is working in, in your herd. So those are some of the factors that we know have an impact on quality volume. I've alluded to a couple already. One of the frustrating things within the industry apparently associated with volume is herds go through periods of kind of feast and famine. They're getting lots of colostrum. Typically a cows will produce on average a gallon per cow or maybe five porch per cow on average.
Sandra (00:21:42):
But then they'll go through spells, and maybe Tricia can comment on this in a few minutes if, if they've experienced this at she crest spells where for a period of weeks or months, cows aren't producing sufficient volume and what's up with that? And the truth is, we don't truly know, but one of the risk factors, it seems to be associated with heading into the fall months, you know, towards, well, right now basically through, you know, October towards Christmas volumes and thumb hurts will drop. And then as we head out of Christmas towards spring and summer, the volumes swing back up again. And so what's hypothesized is that that is associated with either shortened day length, so messing with her melatonin production that kind of thing and or the cold. So, so a little bit of cold stress and she's diverting more of her nutrients to just her maintenance needs and maybe diverting some away from her, you know, colostrum production.
Sandra (00:22:45):
So the temperature humidity index is one and or day length is another. Those two factors are associated with this seasonal dip that we see. But until we get it figured out I guess intervention wise, all I can suggest is prepare for the worst. So when, you know, you've got a surplus in, in spring and summer, have a chest freezer be putting aside your surplus in the freezer so that you've got a surplus buildup if you need it heading into the fall and winter months. The alternative would be to use more colostrum, replacers, you know, if you, if you're short of maternal colostrum in the fall and winter
Jeff (00:23:24):
Months. So with that seasonal trend, I know there could be a dilution effect, but do you see the opposite with the composition of that colostrum? The quality Triciaa is shaking her head.
Sandra (00:23:38):
It's worse. Yeah. I don't
Jeff (00:23:40):
So the volume's lower and the colostrum
Sandra (00:23:43):
Quality's worse.
Jeff (00:23:45):
Okay.
Sandra (00:23:45):
Is that what you've seen
Tricia (00:23:46):
On our farm? Yeah, on our farm? Yeah. It's hard pressed to get a 24 on a bricks in October A 25. Yeah. It's not, it isn't, yeah. It happens to us as well. Yeah.
Sandra (00:24:01):
So what, what if you what if, do you see that every year, Tricia? And then what, what have you tried or attempted what or how do you prepare for that?
Tricia (00:24:10):
So the interesting thing for us is it used to start in September. I've been at Shady Crest for 15 years now. So I have a few years of experience on this farm. And it used to start in September, but now it starts in October. So I'll have a good colostrum until the end of September now, but now it's October when I start to run out of the classroom, and we do exactly what you said. We try really hard not to use classroom replacers if possible and continue with frozen maternal colostrum. So during the spring and summer, we will empty out a freezer and we will freeze a 26 on the bricks or 27 on the bricks colostrum, and about 20 to 30 bags in my freezer. And they'll sit there until October and it'll be time to start pulling 'em out. And that will get us through the low of no colostrum or low quality colostrum all the way probably.
Tricia (00:25:03):
It was basically by the end of November we're done Right now. Cows are calving with a good amount of colostrum right now. So we do, we prepare, I mean, I've gone through years where you're not prepared, obviously, and in the beginning of my years there, not knowing and having to run for boxes in the boxes of colostrum replacer. But we've, we've learned over the years, the best thing to do is when you have a surplus of that 26 and 27. 'cause We know that some of the IgGs die in the freezer. It's not quite as good as feeding fresh, pasteurized colostrum. And so we try really hard to freeze the higher quantity, higher bricks readings.
Jeff (00:25:43):
So, Tricia, did I hear you right? You said you're already past that low?
Tricia (00:25:47):
Yeah, yeah.
Jeff (00:25:48):
It's really October, maybe October,
Tricia (00:25:50):
November. And then cows start to produce more groom.
Jeff (00:25:54):
Yeah. Then how would they produce, let's say December, January compared to summer months? Is it fairly equal or is there still a little bit of a difference, but just
Tricia (00:26:05):
There's, I would say there's a little less, I would agree with Sandra that it goes with a little less, but when we go from like a cow giving one quart, if you're lucky to, she gives three quarts and it's a better quality. We're doing well right now.
Sandra (00:26:18):
I guess one other intervention is just to double check your dry cow nutrition program as you're heading into the fall months too. Hopefully you're already meeting protein and energy requirements anyway, but just if, if you run into the problem tr is describing it might be environment, you know, photo period, temperature, humidity, whatever. But it has been recommended, and this is, just through field experience has been recommended from a few nutrition type people to make sure your metabolizable protein is at least 1200 to maybe up to 1400 grams per day. Make sure you've got sufficient energy, especially in that closeup ration.
Tricia (00:26:59):
Yeah, yeah. So we do run a two group dry cow fresh situation at our farm. We feed a decade's diet and our cows, I'm very thankful for. We figured it out over the years that they have to eat 30 to 35 pounds of dry matter in my prefs in order for things to run smoothly. And this week when I checked they were at 34 pounds of dry matter. And I know a lot of people, 'cause for many years we sat at 24 pounds and I know a lot of people have a hard time getting that, getting to that point. But that was something that we've learned that not only does it increase you know, enough nutrients for the cow, but also zero fresh cow problems or like very low numbers of fresh cow problems and great colostrum. It really is the kit and caboodle to get your cows to eat over 30 pounds of dry matter. But figuring that out, that was years of, years of struggling.
Sandra (00:27:55):
Yeah. Good for you. That sounds, that's great.
Scott (00:27:58):
We recently, as we're talking on the subject of volume, recently completed two research studies, one at Michigan State University and the other at the University of Wisconsin, where we supplemented ruid protected choline prepartum. We saw a five pound increase in colostrum approximately on both of those trials. We obviously need to repeat that a few more times, but it's kind of compelling. We've got some ideas what the modes of actions are, but the one thing I was thinking of with Jeff here, we ought to go back and look at that data, Jeff, and to see if we can see some of the seasonality in that production as well. Take a look at that. But anyway, interesting results and kind of is relative to this discussion.
Tricia (00:28:41):
Yeah, I saw your guys' commercial on that as I've been watching your podcast. Yeah, that was interesting as well. Very interesting to feed it during, you know, dry cow and pre fresh period. 'cause We, right now we just feed your choline in our fresh cow period.
Scott (00:28:57):
Okay. You know, I'm kind of also curious as we're kinda on this discussion of, of, of quantity. We haven't got the quality we have a little bit already, but anyway do, do we see a correlation between high-producing cows? Are they also the cows that produce a large amount of colostrum? Any, any correlation there?
Sandra (00:29:18):
I could comment on what this research says, and then I'd like to hear what Tricia has observed, because I'm sure she's been paying attention to this. There is a very, very weak relationship between the volume produced and the quality. There used to be this old rule of thumb, if she made more than I, I think it was 10 pound, the 10 pound rule, it was gonna be poor quality. Throw it out, don't worry about it. But the truth is, if you look at the research and you plot volume produced against the quality, it's a huge scatter like shotgun blast. So it's a fairly weak relationship. So I wouldn't put much stock in it. I would default to measuring it, just, just pull out your bricks, refractometer and measure it, and then you, then you'll go. So yeah, that's, that's what the research seems to suggest.
Tricia (00:30:10):
And yeah, on our end when you have a cow that was a high producer last lactation, yeah, she really does tend to come in with more colostrum than your heifer. I also think there's a correlation to the amount of colostrum to the amount of edema in the cow. So most of the time our heifers are the ones with edema. You get edema, you don't get hardly any colostrum out of them. And you'll get some second lactations and a few third lactations with edema. But most of the time it's just the heifers. But you got a cow that comes in with a nice supple udder. She's was high producing last lactation. She's gonna produce a lot of colostrum for us. And I agree with Sandra. We don't just blindly feed colostrum. We check everything and feed according to what we check on the bricks, refractometer.
Jeff (00:31:02):
And Tricia, what's your goal on the bricks refractometer?
Tricia (00:31:07):
So I'd like to feed anything over a 24 as a first classroom and anything from an 18 to a 22 on a second colostrum. On our farm we do feed four quarts at the first feeding within the first two hours. And then within eight to 12 hours later we shoot for the second feeding. And that is two quarts. And the second feeding then can be a little bit lower quality. So we sort our, we have our employees as they milk a fresh cow, put her in a bucket and write, oh, number one on it, meaning that's her first milking. And then we save the second milking and that goes in a bucket with two. And when I low on classroom, I didn't tell you guys this, but during the seasonality time when we're low on classroom, we actually save the third milking as well. And even if it's an 18 or 16, we still feed it as a second colostrum.
Jeff (00:31:59):
Okay. Sandra, can I get you to help me with some interpretation? And we may need, Scott, we may need to be prepared to edit this 'cause it may make me look like an idiot, but I didn't quite understand it. So Sandra, you set the goal is to have 90% of our samples tested above greater than 22% BrickX, which is equivalent to about 50 grams per liter of IgG or IGG. Yeah. then. So I understand that. But when I see the, you had a slide with the new goals, the excellent, good, fair, and the excellent was greater than 25 grams per liter. Okay. Where's,
Sandra (00:32:41):
Yeah, so you're looking at an apples and oranges thing. The greater than 50 gram per liter goal refers to colostrum the IgG concentration in the colostrum. Okay. The table that you're looking at where it says new goals for monitoring passive transfer, that's the serum, IGG level the
Jeff (00:32:59):
Serum. Okay, gotcha.
Sandra (00:33:00):
Yeah. So that's what we're looking for in the calf.
Jeff (00:33:03):
Okay.
Sandra (00:33:03):
Oh, no, no, no. Well, I was just gonna go back to the bricks. So Tricia mentioned she uses a bricks reflectometer to mon to measure cholesterol quality at the cal level and make individual feeding decisions at the cal. And that's fabulous. And that's one way to use that tool. And if and if it was poor quality, you could do what Tricia's doing. Like the poor quality goes to the second feeding poor quality, you might add a supplement, poor quality, it might go to the poor little bull calf instead of the heifer calf. Although these days bull calves are worse, way more than heifer calves, which is counterintuitive, but whatever. But anyway, measuring it at the cal level, you can make individual feeding decisions. That's one use of the breakthrough reflectometer. The other use is to do herd level monitoring, to just ask the question at the herd level, is my program working?
Sandra (00:33:52):
Because if it's not, then we need to go back to the, some of the variables we've been talking about, nutrition and dry period length and, and things like that to see if we can tweak something. So at the herd level, like if, if Tricia measures the next 50 cows or next 100 cows that cal in, my goal is for at least 90% of those cows to test at the 22% or higher. And if she's getting that goal, to me that tells me her herd program, her management program is working. If half of her cows are failing and to reach that 22%, then we'd go back to that list and see what we could tweak. Mm-Hmm.
Jeff (00:34:44):
So with that, you know, we always say we can't manage what we can't measure. Tricia, what on your dairy, what do you, what kind of records do you keep on the calves colostrum calf health? 'cause That's a big limitation I've seen on a lot of dairies. There's just not records.
Tricia (00:35:06):
Yeah.
Jeff (00:35:07):
Or it's written down somewhere and then manure gets splatted on it and you can't read it.
Tricia (00:35:12):
Can't read. Yeah.
Tricia (00:35:14):
Yeah. So on our farm, we record everything. I'm pretty hardcore on doing that, keeping it for years. I have years and years of data. I've got probably 10 years of weekly serum protein data as well. Each week we do serum proteins Every Tuesday I have a designated employee who does that, who I trained in to do that. We use the same digital refractometer. It's all in one digital bricks and digital refractometer as well for our serum proteins. And we monitor our calves that way we can tell obviously when the program isn't working, when calves are stressed, when calves are not passing their serum protein. And along the same gear, we also, and so we, we keep that as a recorded paper. We actually put it up on one of our refrigerators with magnets so that all the employees can see it.
Tricia (00:36:09):
So my veterinarians can see it weekly as well. And then we record all treatments and treatments then are entered in our dairy count program for our farm to make sure that everything is going the way it's going. If I had a calf that was sick and she calves in and she's still sick, let's say I had a pneumonia calf, I can look back in her previous lactation as a heifer to see if she was ill as well. So we do have a place to record treatments and places to record serum proteins. We have a place to record the second colostrum, a piece of paper that my employees write down when they feed that second colostrum. That way the person who comes to feed calves after her or after him can see that that calf is already fed. We do feed our bulk calves that are for sale, a second colostrum as well.
Tricia (00:36:53):
And those, we have just a really simple system. We just mark their heads with pink. If the bull calf was just born and he has a head march with pink, then we know that the calf has gotten his second colostrum. If he was just born and does not have pink, then that feeder who comes along in the afternoon or the next morning then knows that that calf needs to be fed a second colostrum. And we do try really hard to record everything as much as possible to keep our records. I'm sorry, tangent from the records, but that second feeding, are you tubing that or is that a bottle nickel bottom? Yeah, ideally we would know, I'm smiling right,
Tricia (00:37:36):
Nope, that's fine. No, that's fine. I was just curious. No, no judgment. Absolutely not. What? Yeah, that ain't broke. Don't fix it. Yep, they're tubed. It's very unusual. I actually personally will take my time 'cause I have the time. Right. Whereas the feeders are like, they're on a schedule, they gotta keep going. But if I'm gonna be feeding a second classroom, I will take my time with that calf. I'll walk away and come back. But most, almost all the calves are tube, their second classroom. 'cause You're right, it's more important that they get it than I fight with my employees that you have to use a nipple and you know, she has to drink all of that. So Yeah. And then after that they're transferred over to the milk diet. Do you bucket or bottle feed the milk. So we stay on a bottle for seven days and on day eight we switch to a bucket.
Scott (00:38:22):
Yeah. Tricia, I'm kind of curious, you know Sandra talked about the four Qs. We've been talking about different aspects of a good cluster management program, but relative to those, those four Qs if things break down, I'm sure you guys doing a wonderful job at your dairy, but if they break down, where does it break down? Which one of those cues is perhaps the toughest or maybe the, the, the bottleneck for you guys?
Tricia (00:38:48):
Things break down. Most definitely. I do want to say and admit we do a great job. My employees do a great job. You know, a lot of my employees have many years with me. I do speak Spanish, and so I'm able to communicate with them the reasons why we do the things the way we do it. But things do break down. Most recently it was an agitator. So the agitator is supposed to be up and it's supposed to whip the colostrum really well. Well, the agitators flaps were level and it wasn't whip in the colostrum. And when the classroom's a 25, a 26 or 27, it's basically just denaturing and turning in the gel. Well, the employee didn't quite catch that. And so we're feeding denature colostrum. It's sitting in the stomachs of the calves. It's not passing through. Everybody's unhappy.
Tricia (00:39:34):
It took me a little while to figure that out. Unfortunately. But I did once I figured it out and it, it all literally was just the agitator thing. And, the thing is, with our pasteurizer, if we're gonna pasteurize a batch, then the agitators' right needs to be lifted up so that they whip the colostrum around. But if we're gonna pasteurize a bag, then we put a grate on top of that agitator. 'cause The agitator then would hit the bag if we didn't have a grate. And so we put the grate on it. Well, the little agitator wings hit the grate. So they kind of have to be moved a little and you kind of have to remember to bring 'em back up, you know. So that was the most recent, this was the spring breakdown on the farm.
Tricia (00:40:19):
Hard to believe that it was that big of a deal, but, or that small of a deal. But yeah. And then the seasonality thing really is an issue. It really truly is an issue. Sometimes we'll have more calves not past their serum proteins if they're fed frozen colostrum. I liked my employees to write it down that they've actually fed a frozen colostrum. But most of the time yeah, I don't know. Human error, obviously the agitator was human error, right. The up and down. But yeah, most of the time it's a, just a, a mistake, a human error. It's not, for us, it's not a big deal. Our cleanliness really isn't that big of an issue. We're pretty clean. We replace our esophageal tubes every week. We don't feed as many calves as a herd that's milking 5,000 daily, but we feed you know, five to seven calves a week. And we'll use one tube during that week, and then every Monday we replace the tube and start with a new tube. That's helpful as well. Very helpful. Hmm.
Sandra (00:41:22):
Tricia, can I ask you a question? You've said, said twice now that frozen colostrum you're getting poor results or you think it's damaging ig that shouldn't be the case. So I'm just wondering perhaps how you're thawing it. If it, maybe it's, is it getting put in a hot water bath? What's the temperature? How long is it there? You know, maybe you're damaging it as on the heat up. I, I don't know.
Tricia (00:41:46):
Yeah, so, so on the heat up, it's not in hot water. Like, it's not in anything over 105 or 110 water. We have the sous chef heater inside of a inside of a cooler. And then the classroom is set in the cooler. It takes a lot longer. It takes a couple hours for it to thaw out. I'm not gonna say that my employees don't leave it out on the shelf either, just to start to thaw, you know, as they're waiting for a calf, you know, if we know we have to feed frozen claustrum, but sometimes they don't pass. And I agree with you. I don't quite know why. But it is occasionally that the frozen colostrum doesn't pass blood. It is it, most of the time it does quite well.
Sandra (00:42:33):
Okay, good.
Scott (00:42:37):
Yeah. Sandra, I'm gonna ask you kind of a similar question. You probably interface with a lot of dairies. Where would, where would that weak link be in the process of a good colostrum management program? And where should producers focus, maybe some of their, most of their resources and attention to improving their colostrum management programs?
Sandra (00:42:57):
I guess, I guess a couple of things. One, one is monitoring, just, just adopting a routine monitoring program. And we're seeing more herds. Triciaa's a perfect example of that, that are now routinely bleeding calves, monitoring total proteins. You don't have to do every calf, but doing a, you know, a random 15, 20 calves per week or per month depends on your herd size as well as the chorum quality. Having a Brix refractometer available, and recording those results and monitoring the quality. So I think there's a big opportunity for a lot of Hertz to do more consistent monitoring on that front. And if, if they're not, then that's an opportunity for the veterinarian to step in and design a practical program, do whatever training needs doing and get it going. And then, and then look at the numbers, you know, make sure that people know that you're looking at the numbers and giving feedback and so that they know that this is important.
Sandra (00:43:52):
This means something. It's not just something to do. So monitoring is one. And then of the four qss cleanliness is, is the big, the big one that I'm concerned about. Yes, to the point about, you know, the volume and, and the challenges with volume in the, in the fall, for sure. That's, that's out there. And hopefully we'll get that solved one day. But I think there's a huge opportunity to clean up our colostrum more. That's important, not just from a pathogen exposure point of view. We don't wanna be feeding contaminated colostrum, feeding bugs to calves, but also we've learned over the years that high bacteria counts in colostrum, interfere with or negatively impact absorption of the IgG into the circulation of the calf. So if we're feeding dirty colostrum, we're gonna get lower serum pill proteins in those calves and higher risk for scours and everything else.
Sandra (00:44:50):
So starting to do some cultures monitoring, cleanliness of the colostrum being fed. And if, if it's dirty, then going back to identify, okay, where are the, the critical control points in our harvest, our storage, our feeding, you know, all, all the steps on the way to the calf. Where is this bacteria being introduced? Is it because we're not adequately prepping the udder? Is it because we're milking into a dirty bucket or transferring that into a dirty bottle or tube feeder? Are we leaving it to sit out for a couple of hours or longer on a warm July day? And just letting bacteria multiply and proliferate in the colostrum before it gets either fed or refrigerated or frozen. If you do put it in the fridge to store it, we need to chill it as soon as possible after collection.
Sandra (00:45:42):
And even then in the refrigerator, it will still grow bugs just at a slower rate than if it's sitting out on a warm day. So even then, refrigerated colostrum, I still want it used up within a day or two. So looking at those just common sense kind of critical control points on the dairy and see where we can intervene and kind of clean things up on certain dairies and a lot of dairies it's appropriate to have a conversation about, well, should we be heat treating colostrum? So Tricia, they pasteurize the heat, treat colostrum on their dairy, and, and that's pretty assuming it's working. To your point, Tricia, you know, the, the, the equipment's working. It's, you know, settings are right, the agitator working, all that stuff. That can be a really nice way of cleaning up colostrum. And we, we and others have seen benefits.
Sandra (00:46:35):
Heat treating. It's one way to reduce your bacterial exposure. We see better total proteins. We can see healthy cows. Now, it's not necessarily for everybody. Not everybody needs it, but in a lot of herds it is beneficial. And certainly for herds, whether you may have diseases in the cow herd that you don't wanna transmit calves, it's, it's a useful tool. So thinking about yonis or salmonella or heaven forbid if there were mycoplasma, mastitis, you know, percolating through the milking herd, we don't wanna be feeding that to the calf. So that's an opportunity for heat movement. An alternative could be to feed colostrum, replacers and, and they're certainly convenient to feed as well. You just wanna make sure you've got a high quality product and you're feeding a sufficient dose, but they're useful tools as well. Mm-Hmm.
Jeff (00:47:30):
So with some of those improvement areas, Tricia, you said you've been at shady crist 15 years.
Jeff (00:47:39):
Where, where do you feel like y'all made the most improvements in colostrum management, calf management? Were there any significant changes you've made? Or did you make the clean cleaner, the quick quicker
Tricia (00:47:54):
Well, I think it is probably a correlation or, or just a whole bunch of things coming together. And maybe employee training all the way to, I got a new cooler for cooling the classroom instead of having a refrigerator. I have a cooler, it's a lot faster for cooling down the classroom. We've over the years, upgraded our pasteurizer to get a little bit better pasteurizer since it's used everyday. I do, I think I, I think I put a lot of emphasis on the employees and their willingness to do what I ask them to do. And them to stick with it and be consistent with it. I think that's probably the biggest thing. You know, as opposed, so we have weekly, we have regular, we don't have weekly, but we have regular meetings. We talk about the milkers, not milking the crum and then letting it sit in the pale in the parlor.
Tricia (00:48:56):
As soon as you're done milking the cow, it needs to go to the refrigerator. We have regular communication about how often that pastor or that colostrum comes outta the pasteurizer. And now I have an employee that's been there for almost 10 years now feeding my calves and she brings the colostrum every morning so over to be pasteurized and processed. And that has been consistent for a long time. And I think that the consistency that we do daily on our farm and the fact that we've had people in certain areas not turnover, I think that goes a long way. 'cause You get the same person doing the same thing every day and you get me who I strive to do my best as much as possible on the farm to, to get to the feeding program where we are. We my calf feeder was instrumental in helping us determine over the years, how we were gonna feed milk, what she sees when, when we feed milk, even just to regular 20 day old calves or 10 deal calves. Instrumental in getting that second feeding of colostrum into those bulk calves that are gonna be sold. A lot, a lot of things have been, been able to be, to be done because I have people who are willing to do it. And I think that's probably the most important.
Jeff (00:50:16):
I'd be remiss 'cause I often get questions from my jersey owners. And as much as we talk about the low colostrum and quantity, seems like the Jersey people suffer even more sometimes. Is there, is it just a breed difference or you got any background on that?
Sandra (00:50:39):
When you say they suffer, Jeff, you mean, you know, just more and morbidity, more mortality in the cast?
Jeff (00:50:44):
No, no. From a colostrum, a colostrum basis. I just seem like I hear the jersey people and a couple of nutritionists that have so when we're positioning our room and protected choline, and we've seen those effects on improvements in colostrum, like, well, I need to see it in those, in those jersey animals too. They feel like they get hit a little bit harder. I don't know if that's true. I'm not, I haven't been vested in that.
Sandra (00:51:15):
Yeah, okay. Don't, I don't know, is the short answer. We don't have, frankly, we don't have good studies where we've put jersey cows and Holstein cows and whatever other breed you want in the same barn, same environment, same ration, and tested them for differences. So we have these preconceived ideas that, oh, jerseys are more this or more that, whatever. There's really not a good, not good research to support it one way or the other. That's my take on it. I've only closely worked with one large jersey herd here in Minnesota who've worked with them for many years now. I've done several colostrum studies there. Typically they were summertime studies, 'cause that's when we had student help available to go, go do the work, student technicians and my, it was fine. Okay. Volume was fine. Quality was excellent. If we fed a sufficient volume to the calf, it was heat treated and then tube fed, just a single feeding.
Sandra (00:52:18):
We get really good levels in the calves. Again, that's an n of one herd, but it suggests that it can, jerseys can be managed well now, they were, you know, on top of nutrition, they were on top of heat abatement in the dry period. They were on top of harvesting colostrum very quickly after calving, like doing all the things that we've talked about in this podcast today. So they, they, they seem to be doing everything right, and they were getting good results. Again, of one herd, but I don't, I don't have any data to say jerseys are worse in terms of managing the calf.
Jeff (00:52:55):
Okay. And it may have been the day that I was talking to a couple of people in November, which was their bottom time too. Who knows?
Sandra (00:53:04):
So, just kinda curious. Well, that's why I asked you, you know, were you referring to the calf? Because that's a different animal. I mean, you know, they're much more prone to cold stress, you know, so they're apart from the colostrum, there's, there's a whole lot of other stuff going on that we have to manage with, with jersey calves. So that's why I was wondering. Yeah. Okay.
Jeff (00:53:25):
Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Okay. I've got one more question. The absorption of the colostrum itself, how, how much of that is due to the certain factors within that colostrum versus the stomach lining at birth, the villa? What, what affects the absorption in simple terms?
Sandra (00:53:51):
Okay, well the, the biggest factor that we understand reasonably well is that a concept of the calf is born with an open gut, right? And then over the first 24 hours, give or take a few hours, it closes. So the epithelial lining of the small intestine initially it can, these large protein molecules, these immunoglobulins, which are big proteins, can be attached and then moved, moved across the gut into the circulation. But in that first 24 hours, the epithelial lining, the surface lining of the gut changes turns over and we lose that ability to absorb the IgG. So that process is called closure. And that, that is to my mind, the most significant factor that's affecting absorption. So that's, and that's why we stress what, why it's so important to feed that calf quickly, you know, within, ideally within the first couple of hours, but as soon as possible after birth to get the best efficiency of absorption of the IG that you did feed other factors.
Sandra (00:54:58):
There, there, there are several ones I've already talked about a little bit is the cleanliness of the colostrum. We know that colostrum with high levels of bacterial contamination, we see impaired or efficiency of absorption. So somehow those bacteria are binding or blocking or interfering with moving the IG molecule across the gut. So there's less moved across. So that's one of the reasons we stress beating clean colostrum. There are several calf factors. So calves that are born stressed, have impaired circulation, don't stand as quickly. They seem to have more troubles impaired absorption, if you will. So dystocias premature deliveries cold stress, heat stress even heat stress while you're in the dam's uterus. So back to heat abatement for the dry cal. There are a number of stressors that can negatively impact the calf's ability to absorb those any in body molecules. Yeah. Okay.
Jeff (00:56:12):
Great.
Scott (00:56:13):
Kind of but, that leads to another question, right? If the gut closes after, you know, 24 hours and yet you're seeing the benefit of feeding it in two to three weeks out, I'm assuming it's still being absorbed, or is there another mode of action at play? There?
Sandra (00:56:30):
There are other modes of action at play. So what you just said, Scott? Yeah. So roughly 24 hours, give or take, the gut closes we can, the calf can't move more IG protein out of the lumen of the gut into the circulation. But that IG protein is still in the lumen of the gut. And as it's flowing down the gut, it's bumping into binding with and neutralizing pathogens, viral, bacterial, whatever. So that's one benefit. So that's a reason for why we're seeing benefits over the next two and three weeks. In addition to that, it's not just the immunoglobulins. There are tons of bioactive compounds, growth factors, hormones, antibacterial compounds that are going to help with development of the gut and local immunity and even systemic immunity. If we, one of these studies that I was describing earlier, fed a colostrum supplement for o to two weeks, they didn't just see a reduction in scours.
Sandra (00:57:37):
They saw an improved rate of gain and they saw less pneumonia. So, the lungs are sitting over here. How could what's happening in the gut affect systemic immunity? Well, it is, and it's some of these other immune mediators that are at play and growth factors and growth hormones and what have you. So there's a whole lot of goodies in colostrum that are impacting health and performance. In addition to that, there's nutrition. So if we think about whole milk, it's 12 point half, 13% total solids, right? Colostrum, holding colostrum is going to be closer to 24, 25, maybe even higher percent total solid. So there is a pile of extra protein, dietary protein, fat calories, some vitamins coming in, in the colostrum that are gonna support her, that support the calf nutritionally. And, and we know through many, many other studies in calves and many other species as well, the higher the plane of nutrition, well, the more you grow, but also the higher the plane of nutrition, the better your immune system works because the immune system needs energy and, and, and other nutrients to support its function. So there's a whole lot of stuff going on outside of just the antibodies that are supporting improved health and growth with this extended feeding, even if the gut is already closed.
Scott (00:59:01):
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Well, Jeff, you said you're outta bourbon or you have bourbon. I'm out of bourbon and this is a bit of an hourglass. So when my, my bourbon's out, that means it's time to close it down
Speaker 5 (00:59:35):
Tonight's last call question is brought to you by NitroShure Precision Release Nitrogen. NitroShure delivers a complete TMR for the room microbiome, helping you feed the microbes that feed your cows. To learn more about maximizing microbial protein output while reducing your carbon footprint, visit balchem.com/nitroshure.
Jeff (00:59:58):
Well, I think at the beginning Sandra said she thought a lot of the audience may be dairy mo nutritionist, whoever that may be, get bored hearing about colostrum, and they may get bored hearing about Squeaky clean or quicker 'cause they've heard that. But, you know, and Scott, you know, we haven't been, biochem hasn't been invested in the, in this for a long time, but as we're starting to learn more about effects of reassure with colostrum and how it affects the performance of the baby as we talk to Dairyman, if we can tell them something that will improve their colostrum quantity or quality, I think they're still interested. So I think we need to keep pushing these buttons, delivering this message. I think they're very interested in it.
Scott (01:00:54):
Kind of follow up with that, Jeff. You know, 30% of our audience is not in the United States, and I know that traveling around speaking with dairymen around the world they may not put the same emphasis on colostrum as we do here in the States. And so I think there's still a lot to learn to be implemented, you know, outside the United States. Yep. Yep. Triciaa, you've been a great guest and thanks he for inviting you. It's not often we get a great practical input. What's one, one one final thought that you'd like to leave with our audience?
Tricia (01:01:32):
Well, I was thinking about what I was gonna say. I think that your, to remember that your first feeding a colostrum is setting up your milking dairy cow. And if you set her up to do poorly, because her first feeding of a colostrum is poor, you're gonna get, at the end of the day, a poor milking cow. So we should strive to remember that every baby born on the farm needs to have a supreme colostrum inside of them because they're going to become a supreme cow.
Scott (01:02:02):
Well, that's a great point. That's your future. That's your future right there. Let's take care of 'em. Very well. Sandra, you said at the beginning, you know, a colostrum, it's liquid gold, it's got high value. Put an exclamation point on that for us, if you will.
Sandra (01:02:22):
Yeah, I guess that kind of ties back to what Tricia and Jeff were just talking about, is there's, there's long-term economic benefits to the producer for getting that first feeding, right? Or the program. Right. and we didn't talk about this in the last hour, but there have been studies describing, you know, in the short term we see benefits like reduced morbidity, reduced mortality, everybody gets that. But longer term we see improved rate of gain, lower age at first calving, and more milk in the first and second lactation. You really truly are setting her up for a successful lifetime. So there's, yes, it's what, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever to do that job. Right? It's well worth your while to get that job done correctly and get that cat off to a good start.
Scott (01:03:13):
Yeah. Thank you. Great one guys. Jeff, appreciate your input. Triciaa, you're a great guest. Sandra, what a great topic. It's an important topic. Really appreciate the conversation to our loyal listeners. Thank you once again for coming along with us on this journey. We really appreciate you. We hope you learned something. We hope you had some fun and we hope to see you next time here at the Real Science Exchange, where it's always happy hour and you're always among friends.
Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
We'd love to hear your comments or ideas for topics and guests. So please reach out via email to anh.marketing@balchem.com with any suggestions and we'll work hard to add them to the schedule. Don't forget to leave a five star rating on your way out. You can request your Real Science Exchange t-shirt in just a few easy steps, just like or subscribe to the Real Science Exchange. And send us a screenshot along with your address and t-shirt size to a h.marketing at alchem.com. Balchem’s real science lecture series of webinars continues with ruminant focused topics on the first Tuesday of every month, monogastric focused topics on the second Tuesday of each month, and quarterly topics for the companion animal segment. Visit balchem.com/realscience to see the latest schedule and to register for upcoming webinars.