Organize maternity pen procedures to improve cattle care

AMARILLO, Texas — People working in the maternity area of a dairy farm provide a specialized type of care for the animals.

“The cow, the newborn baby, the people taking care of them and the environment, I think of those things together,” said Barb Petersen, owner of Sunrise Veterinary Service PLLC in Amarillo.

Texas is No. 3 in dairy production in the United States, Petersen said, with about 300 dairies in the state and almost 700,000 cows.

“I’m in the panhandle of Texas and about 80% of the cows live in the northernmost counties where I live and work,” she said.

People managing maternity pens have a wide variety of tasks that include caring for the cows, warming up colostrum, feeding calves, moving calves and recordkeeping, to name a few.

“Everything is happening all at once,” said Petersen during a webinar hosted by Hoard’s Dairyman.

Sometimes, people working in this area have additional duties such as pushing up feed.

“They leave the maternity area for a period of time, which potentially leaves a deficit in the maternity area,” Petersen said.

“We need to make it easy for those working in the maternity area to identify who is going to calve this week and what type of calf they are expecting — a replacement heifer or a beef crossbred heifer,” she said. “It should be in an easy-to-find format.”

It is important cows have access to feed and water before and after they calve.

“If you like to give calcium to the girls that are having their third calf or older, please provide a list of these moms that are eligible to your maternity crew,” the veterinarian said.

The ideal situation for maternity pens is to have some type of continuous monitoring system.

“Some clients have very simple Wi-Fi cameras and others have equipment that identifies each cow and signals when she is in labor,” Petersen said.

Recordkeeping on dairy farms can be completed in a variety of ways, including the simple use of a notebook.

“Notebooks are a free-for-all because you can record whatever you want to, which is both a positive and a negative,” Petersen said. “There’s nothing wrong with a notebook, but the goal is to record things consistently.”

Fillable forms are the next level with columns for recording the same information for each animal.

The information could include data such as the birth date, the cow’s ID, the sex of the baby, the ID assigned to the calf, the colostrum feeding time and when the cow was moved to the fresh pen.

Petersen highlighted a system that is a fillable form with stickers. The dairy farm purchases tags that have stickers associated with them.

“The stickers have the cow ID, the sire that was used and the due date,” Petersen said. “When the cow calves, the worker grabs the sticker, puts it in the book and writes the date and whether the calf is a male or female.”

Other columns in the form could include where the cow is moved to and who the technician is.

“When the data is entered into the main system, they mark it,” Petersen said. “This sticker book is awesome.”

Caring for the calf’s navel is an important job for those working in the maternity pen.

“The navel is a superhighway to the calf’s liver and bloodstream for infections,” Petersen said. “That’s why keeping navels clean and using a naval dip is so important.”

To help track colostrum feeding, dairymen can use a wristband, write important information on it and place in on the calf’s leg. The information can include the time the calf was born, the time of the first feeding and the calf’s mom.

“Once the calf is two to three days old, cut the wristband off,” Petersen said. “You can have two different colors of wristbands for bulls and heifers.”

Ideally, the veterinarian said, to maximize absorption, colostrum should be fed two to four hours after the calf is born.

“Our traditional goal for quantity is 10% of bodyweight for the first feeding and 5% for the second feeding with a Brix score of 22%,” she said.

From updated goals based on new research, Petersen said, dairymen should think of quantity of colostrum in the amounts of immunoglobulins per feeding.

“By feeding 200 to 300 grams of immunoglobulins at first feeding and 100 to 200 grams of immunoglobulins for the second feeding, we can reach the calf’s immunoglobulin goals without overwhelming the stomach,” she said.

A University of Wisconsin study evaluated 184 colostrum samples from four dairies.

“There was a really big spread in the Brix score of plus or minus 42.5,” Petersen said. “So, it could be as low as 32 or as high as 117 grams of immunoglobulins per liter.”

The total volume of all the compartments of a calf’s stomach is 3 to 4 liters, the veterinarian said.

“The true stomach, the abomasum is 1 to 2 liters,” she said. “The other parts of the stomach are not very well developed because the calf is a monogastric at this point.”

Dairymen can control the timing of colostrum feeding to maximize the efficiency of the absorption of immunoglobulins.

“The first feeding ideally within the first two hours of life and the second feeding with a nipple bottle to let the calf determine how much they want to drink,” Petersen said.

“Consider feeding a smaller volume of 6% to 8% in the first 24 hours,” she said. “In order to do this, we have to be Brix testing to hit our goals of 300 grams of immunoglobulins in the first 24 hours, three liters in the first feeding of 25% Brix or greater followed by 1 or 2 liters.”

Cleanliness is priority and this is an area that dairymen can improve by the types of cleaners they use and how often they sanitize equipment.

“Think of a plate count less than 10,000 and total coli count less than 100,” Petersen said. “As close to zero as you can get for E. coli, the better. I know you can do it because I have farms that have been able to do it.”