Calf-rearing game is won in the third quarter

The third quarter surge! Anyone that follows GAA will be familiar with this particular phrase. Analysts, in their wisdom, no longer talk about the game of football or hurling as a game of two halves. Key times during the game are honed in on as times where it is won or lost for either team.

The 15 minutes after half-time is the part of the game where the outcome is decided. Teams like Dublin in football and Limerick in hurling up the ante during this period to pull away from their opponents, leaving the result beyond doubt, even before the final whistle is blown.

When it comes to spring calving, many farms are now in the third quarter of the game. The ‘game’, for the purpose of this discussion, is rearing calves. The majority of herds are well over halfway to the end, which will hopefully happen in early April. We won’t mention extra-time, which, due to a lot of circumstances, may drag on into May.

So into the third quarter we go and we need to up the ante because our opponents are certainly doing the same. But who is the opposition when it comes to rearing healthy calves? Well, we are looking at a very dangerous and deadly team, who are made up of viruses and bacteria that cause pneumonia and scour, along with parasites that cause scour as well.

If we were to look back at last year’s calf-rearing game, for many farms, it was lost in the third quarter. Scour or pneumonia took hold in calf sheds, leading to a long, tough slog trying to keep losses to a minimum, as well as the longer-lasting ramifications of poor thrive.

There are a number of factors that come to a head in early March that allow disease to surge ahead, and they mostly relate to infection pressure. This refers to the build-up of bugs in the calving box and calf pens since calving began.

The first calves that are born usually arrive into an environment that is clean, dry and recently disinfected. The level of infection is very low. Then, as calving progresses and more animals pass through the calving box, the level of infection rises. Calf houses start getting very full, very quickly, and the infection level rises here too.

The workload for the farmer increases daily and some basic tasks like cleaning and disinfecting start to get overlooked. The weather, still wet, gets milder, making the environment even better for bugs to proliferate. All the while, the calf’s immune system is battling off the viruses and bacteria.

Eventually though, the infection pressure surges so much that it overruns the calf ’s immune system.

In order to keep infection pressure down, there’s a few things we can do, even today, in the middle of the third quarter. A full clean-out and disinfection of the calving box will help. This is the area where the newborn calf first comes in contact with all the different bacteria and viruses that are in the environment.

We’ve talked before about the microbiome in the gut and the huge role it plays in the calf ’s immune system. If the calving box is clean and dry, then the calf has a great start. If its wet and mucky, then the calf is already on the back foot.

The same applies to the calf pens. If there’s a build-up of wet straw, all the lime in the world won’t keep the infection pressure at bay. I know straw is a scarce and expensive commodity at present and the temptation is to spare it.

Leaving the old straw and muck build up might seem like a good idea to spare straw, but the reality is the stuff underneath wets the new straw much quicker than if the pen were cleaned down to the concrete. A full shed clean-out will not only lower infection pressure, but also cut down on straw use too.

In the third quarter of the game, the marquee forward is the player most focus is on, but often, the real star is the driver of the team. In this case, that’s transition milk.

Transition milk plays a massive role in developing a young calf’s immune system and keeping it healthy. We all know colostrum is the marquee forward and how important a minimum of three litres of good quality colostrum within the first two hours of life is. Transition milk though plays a huge role in calf health too.

This is milk from cows that are recently calved (up to a week). It is higher in energy than normal milk and it has a certain level of antibodies in it that act locally in the calf’s gut to help prevent disease. By default, the first calves born are all fed transition milk, simply because there is no other milk to feed in the early stages of the calving season.

However, by the time we get to the third quarter, there are lots of cows that are four, five and six weeks calved. The pressure is on at every milking to collect milk, feed calves and watch any recently calved cows so that antibiotic milk doesn’t end up in the tank.

Diverting recently calved cows to the dump line so there’s a good supply of transition milk is low down on the list of jobs to be done. Calves that are only a day or two old may be getting milk from cows that are six weeks’ calved. Not only is their digestive system not developed enough to digest this properly, but there is less energy and antibodies in it too.

The game is lost in the third quarter when the star player, transition milk, is sitting on the bench and not even getting a run. Organising your system to ensure that as much transition milk as possible is fed to young calves will definitely improve calf health and thrive.

As with any team, the subs play a very important role and are often introduced midway through the third quarter. If hygiene, colostrum and transition milk are the backbone, then let’s look at the super subs.

Vaccination helps greatly in calf-disease prevention. At this time of year, late calvers need to be vaccinated to make sure their calves get protection against rotavirus and E.coli. Intranasal vaccines protect young calves against the main pneumonia-causing viruses.

Another super sub is probiotics, which help develop the gut microbiome, improving the calf ’s immune system. These small changes will hopefully mean you come out on the winning side of the game.

‘Transition milk plays a massive role in developing a young calf ’s immune system’