A survey of northern Victorian dairy farmers to investigate dairy calf management: colostrum feeding and management

Abstract

The results from this survey highlight the need for greater awareness of industry standards for colostrum management and feeding hygiene.

A survey of northern Victorian dairy farmers to investigate dairy calf management: calf‐rearing practices

“…Of the 150 questionnaires sent out, 58 (39%) were returned. Herd statistics for the 58 participating farms are described in a separate paper . Survey responses to the questions in Section 3 are summarised in Supplememntary Table 1.…”

“…The limitations of this study are detailed in our other paper . Briefly, the limitations include: the potential for bias in the respondents because of their affiliation with the Rochester Veterinary Practice; the exclusion of time‐based implications; the survey questions being directed at the herd‐level, so the collected data should be regarded as reflecting herd policies, rather than definite events that occur for each individual cow or calf; the features of non‐respondents were not determined; and the possibility of misclassification of farmer‐reported data in the questionnaire.…”

“…A survey of 60 questions was sent to 150 commercial dairy farms across Rochester and the surrounding farming area. The survey was divided into three sections, with the results for the two sections on herd description and colostrum management described in a separate paper …”

A review of factors affecting the welfare of dairy calves in pasture-based production systems

“…In general, high-quality colostrum (IgG concentration of >50 mg/mL) should be supplied within 6 h but no later than 12 h postpartum at about 10% of birth weight (~3.5-4 L; Godden 2008;Roche et al 2015), and opportunities for contamination with bacteria or other pathogens should be minimised (Dairy Australia 2017). However, research suggests that up to 80% of Australian calves could be receiving colostrum with elevated bacterial counts and low IgG content, and less than half of farmers routinely check colostrum quality by using a validated method (Phipps et al 2018;Abuelo et al 2019). While most calves in pasture-based systems are fed colostrum within 6 h of birth (Phipps et al 2018;Abuelo et al 2019), 30-60% of Australian dairy farms (Vogels et al 2013;Abuelo et al 2019) and 50% of New Zealand dairy farms (Cuttance et al 2018) collect calves two or fewer times per day, meaning that some animals may not receive sup plemental colostrum in the first 12 h of life (Vogels et al 2013;Abuelo et al 2019).…”

In this issue – April 2018

“…Two papers describing the results of a survey of commercial dairy farming clients highlight the varying practices used for colostrum management, feeding hygiene, calf husbandry and weaning . Because of the enormous amount of data generated by the study, the results are split into two papers.…”