Andrew Mycock has had his calf milk & colostrum pasteuriser for some 12 years. It is well used and he still swears by it for pasteurising his calf milk!
The herd block calves in late August, and they milk 320 cows on a grass based system, in the Derbyshire Peak District. Cows are dried off using sealant with only 15/20% of the herd being given dry cow therapy, in line with the milk buyer regulations. The criteria for selection being individual cell count over 200, or a case of mastitis during lactation. Mastitis cases are running at 13/14 cases per 100 cows/year.
Pasteurising is carried out on the first 4 days, after calving, of all milk, and this is fed to the youngest calves for two weeks and they are then put onto milk powder. Cow’s milk is placed into a milk trolley, and then this is transferred to the pasteuriser which holds approx 114 litres. It is then heated to 60 degrees centigrade; this is best temperature for keeping the antibodies within the milk, and higher than 60C is no good for colostrum. This runs for an hour, and the milk is then cooled to 37 degrees automatically. This final temperature can be adjusted however.
Andrew strongly believes that feeding natural milk which has been pasteurised to rid it of disease causing organisms, such as Johnes, Mycoplasma etc, whilst also maintaining higher levels of nutrients, such as fat and protein, than milk powder can provide, gives the calves the best possible start in life. The herd is currently TB and Mycoplasma free, and ‘TK Swordsman’ disinfectant (also available from G Shepherd Animal Health) is used when cleaning out all calf pens.
The herd is tested for Johnes four times a year through milk recording with NMR, and whilst it is not quite completely eradicated from the herd, there are currently only 3 cows which are “J5” or priority cull status. Andrew believes that pasteurising the calf milk has helped them to get the disease to this low and manageable level. He is also convinced that the feeding of a consistent standard of milk throughout for first stages of life, keeps the calves healthy with a natural immunity, leading to healthy cows, with lower cell counts, and less mastitis incidence. Average lactations within the herd is 4.1, with a heifer replacement rate of 25-27%.
In summary Andrew says…“I would definitely recommend the ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach when it comes to calf health, the long term benefits, far outweigh the short term outlay”
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