Feeding the calf up till weaningIs it time for a re-think?

Dai Grove-White

Targets for dairy calf rearing.

• Mortality less than 5 %.• Good growth:

– Weaning weight > 65 Kg (80 Kg ?)– Weighs at least >120 Kg at 3 months.– For service @13 -14 months

• Weight > 380 Kg• Withers height > 125 cm

– Calves down at 24 months.

What about subsequent health and production ??

massive area of financial loss

Metabolic programming

• “Early adaptations to a nutritional stress or stimulus permanently change the physiology and metabolism of the organism and continue to be expressed even in the absence of the stimulus/stress that initiated them…” (Patel & Srinivasan 2002).

• Barker “One thousand day hypothesis”– pre-natal nutrition– early life nutrition

• impact on later life risks– CHD, Diabetes Type 2

• “epigenetic switching”

Colostrum

2 litres colostrum 4 litres colostrum

n 37 31

Av daily weight gain (Kg) 0.8 1.03

Age at conception (mths) 14 13.5

% culled be end of Lact 2 24.7% 12.9%

Total milk yield in Lact1 & 2 16044 17072

Faber et al 2005Prof Anim Scientist

Brown Swiss calves fed 2 or 4 litres of colostrum at birth

Enhanced early life nutrition

• Impact on future milk yield– “feeding 50% more milk than standard feed rate”

Study Increased milk yield in Lact1Folgdager & Krohn 1994 640

Bar Peled et al 1998 454Foldager et al 1997 520

Ballard et al 2005 (@200dim) 700Rincker et al 2006 500

Drackley et al 2007 840Chester Jones et al 2009 820

From Van Amburgh et al 2011Proc AABP Vol 44

What’s happening

• Correlation between milk yield and ADG pre-weaning

• feeding in 1st 5 weeks is key• impact on early mammary development

– epigenetic switching– Increased parenchymal growth

• Other mechanisms ?????

How much milk and for how long ?

• Traditional feeding regime• “2 X 2 X 2”

– 2 litres each feed– 2 feeds daily– 2 month weaning

• Time for a rethink ?• Feed more milk for

longer ?– 10 – 12 week weaning– Acidified milk ad-lib ?– Machine feeding ?

• FCE– 3:1 on milk– 10:1 on solids

Twice daily bucket feeding

• Designed to feed for maintenance only

• No provision for growth

• Encourage early transition to solid feedstuffs– Promote rumen

development– Promote early

weaning

50kg calves,Need,• Maintenance ME 8 MJ/day• Growth (1kg/day) 14 MJ/day Total ME = 22MJ/dayGet,4 litres milk replacer = 9 MJ/day

50% of dairy calves LOSE body weight in the first 7 days of life

Development of a novel pre-weaning strategy to improve the health, welfare and productivity of Holstein calves

Gemma Curtis

KTP007995

Study design

• Control group (n = 50)– 2.5 L twice daily for 21 days then 3 litres twice

daily– Wean at 9 weeks

• Intervention group (n = 50)– Ad lib milk from day one– Wean at 12 weeks

Milk and concentrates intakes

Change in weight of calves during the first two weeks of life.

Weight change over 72 weeks0

100

200

300

400

500

Wei

ght (

Kg)

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64 68 72

Age in weeks

restricted fed ad lib fed

Predicted weight (95% CI) in Kg

0.0

00

.25

0.5

00

.75

1.0

0

0 10 20 30 40analysis time

restricted ad lib

Kaplan-Meier survival estimates for achieving puberty0

.00

0.2

50

.50

0.7

51

.00

0 20 40 60 80analysis time

restricted ad lib

Kaplan-Meier survival estimates for 1st service

0.0

00

.25

0.5

00

.75

1.0

0

0 20 40 60 80analysis time

restricted ad lib

Kaplan-Meier survival estimates for conception event

Trend for earlier conception inad lib fed calves

Environmental considerations

• Temperature• Humidity

– Interaction between them• “cold and damp” V “cold and dry”• “hot and humid” V hot and dry

– First 14 days of life• “lower critical temperature”

– 150C but depends on humidity

keeping warm or cool requires energy

The environment

lower critical temperature

optimum humidity range

0

20

40

60

80

100

1st Feb 1st May 1st Aug 1st Nov 1st Feb

Temperature (deg C) Relative humidity (%)

Daily temperature and humidity in calf house.

Tem

pera

ture

(de

g C

) / R

ela

tive

hum

idity

(%

)

Coping with heat & cold(increased energy demands)

cold• Feed more milk or MR

– 150 C + 15%– 100 C + 27%– 50 C + 40%– 00 C + 50%

• environment– warmth– absence of draughts– dry bed

hot• solid food intakes fall so..• increase milk or MR

– How much more?

• environment– air flow– shade– dry bed

Other remedies for cold in first 14 days of life ?

Adequate dry straw for “nesting” = + 40 C

Weaning of dairy calves.

• When calf is eating at least 1.5(?) Kg daily.• When at least 8 weeks old.• Weighing at least 65 Kg (?).• Delay weaning ? - better growth ?

• Woodpark (University of Liverpool)– Bucket reared @ 9 weeks – 80Kg– Ad lib @ 12 weeks – 116 Kg

Peri-weaning scour syndrome

• Pasty scour, poor growth,– bloat, pot - belly etc.

• No bugs yet implicated.• dietary origin?

– rumen development pre - weaning.

• Look at feeding, management – Pre & post weaning.

• Type of concentrate fed– pellet, coarse-mix.

Few weeks after weaning

• ME ~ 11 MJ/Kg at weaning– Lot of cake & relatively small forage intake

• ME ~ 9 MJ/Kg at puberty– ME falls as consumes more forage

– Give forage ad lib– Hay/straw– Chopped ?

Feeding from weaning to service

• Targets (Alex Bache)– By 13 – 15 months

• 380 - 400 Kg• > 125 cm height

– 0.91 Kg dwg from weaning till service– ME ~ 9.0 – 10.5 MJ/Kg DM 15%CP– AVOID FAT

• CS 2.5 – 3.0

• Options– Straw & cake– Silage & cake– TMR (dry)– Grass in summer

Rapid growth will NOT compromise future production – a myth ! (fat in udder)

DMI ~ 3% at weaning & declines to 2% at calving

Monitor calf & heifer growth

• if you don’t measure– you don’t know!

• weight• withers height

Wt = 299 - 8.9_height + 0.07_height^2

rho = 23.8%

R^2 = 96.6%0

100

200

300

400

500

60 80 100 120 140Withers height (cm)

Linear prediction weight

Association between withers height and bodyweight.

Bod

ywei

ght

And finally…..

What is the impact of maternal energy status in early pregnancy ??

when is the best time to serve a cow from the calf’ viewpoint ??