Dairy Quality University

Separate calf from dam ASAP

Several speakers at the Professional Dairy Heifers Growers Association meeting in Reno last month made the same point again and again: Remove the calf from the dam as soon as possible. Why? To prevent the transmission of disease.

Gerald Mechor, Elanco Animal Health, says research shows that some calfhood diseases, such as pneumonia, start much earlier than recognized.

"The calf is sick for days or weeks before it's clearly evident that the disease can be characterized as chronic pneumonia," he says. "It can occur in hutch calves, too."

So where do the pathogens come from? "Respiratory pathogens don't hang in the environment too long," Mechor points out. "If they didn't come from the calf or the environment, [the calf] picked them up from the dam."

Among diseases that kill calves in the first 90 days of life, diarrhea causes almost half of fatalities, Mechor says, referring to a Cornell study that involved 420 calves. About 25% of the early deaths are caused by pneumonia, 10% by septicemia, and 23% by other causes.

Survivor problems. Calves treated for pneumonia in the first 90 days of life are 2.5 times more likely to die before freshening and two times less likely to freshen as heifers because they are culled from the herd.

These animals also have, on average, a 4½-month delay in age at first calving. Furthermore, they have a reduction in growth rate, and they are at increased risk of being culled as a cow, Mechor continues.

"Respiratory disease is the most important health disorder in the calf and heifer," he says.

A clean, dry, properly ventilated environment is essential for raising healthy animals.

"The current movement toward greenhouse rearing is not the answer for the high-producing herd of tomorrow," Mechor says.

"They're built for the comfort of the caretaker. But they aren't a healthy environment for raising calves."