Calf Care - The First Few Hours

Calf Care - The First Few Hours.

If you have Johnes, you must snatch the calf as soon as you find it! Remove the calf to a disinfected and well bedded pen. Kilcox Extra is the disinfectant of choice costing about 0.8p per m2 disinfected!

Then feed it its dams colostrum or pasteurised colostrum, drawn from clean , disinfected teats.

Anyway, in all herds, colostrum intake should not be taken for granted. Calves rarely suck enough and colostrum is often weak. You can use a colostrometer to check its strong enough. If its too weak, then fortify it with "First Thirst" or feed stored strong colostrum. Colostrum can be stored, (pasteurised even), warmed or thawed, and fed directly from our "Perfect Udder" colostrum bag system. The Am,ericans have shown Holstein calves can be bagged with 3.8L of colostrum at birth, and if the colostrum is strong enough, then it will have had enough antibodies. Thats not to say dont give it more later though.

Cows giving over 8L at the first pull usually have weak colostrum, so fortify it .

Dont forget to dress the navel at least twice with strong alcoholic iodine and give the cow a drink of Maxcare Reviva as soon as she has calved.