Maternity Management Practices in Dairy Farms: Newborn Calf Care

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- [Instructor] Welcome to a newborn calf care Learn Now video.

This video describes crucial practices for managing newborn calves during the first hours of life on dairy operations.

Once a calf is delivered, the first step is to ensure that the calf is breathing normally.

If the calf is not breathing, or is breathing with difficulty, personnel can stimulate nostril reflex by introducing a piece of clean straw into the nostril.

Maternity personnel should then check the sex of the calf for record collection, and dab the navel with disinfectant solution.

Next, personnel should place the newborn in front of the cow, to allow her to lick the calf.

This stimulates the calf's breathing and blood circulation, and it helps dry the newborn.

If the cow does not lick the calf, or the weather conditions are extreme, too cold or too hot, necessary accommodation should be provided such as shade, shelter, or a heat source; and the calf should be dried with a clean dry towel or straw.

After, the calf should be placed in a clean and dry pen bedded with straw or other alternative bedding materials where the calf will be tagged and fed colostrum.

Navel disinfection is one of the first practices that must be performed immediately after the calf is born.

The personnel must get the calf in a standing position to ensure that the whole navel cord is immersed in the antiseptic solution.

In addition, it is recommended to re-dip the navel before or after each feeding.

Some of the most common products used for navel disinfection are iodine at a 7% concentration and chlorhexidine at a 2% concentration.

When navel disinfection is not properly performed, infection of the navel could occur.

Around five to 15% of calves experience navel infection on U.S. dairy farms.

This disease has severe consequences such as impaired growth, increased risk of liver abscesses, pneumonia, arthritis, and in severe cases even death.

Proper and frequent navel disinfection, accurate colostrum administration, and maintaining clean maternity and calf pens are considered best management practices for preventing this disease in dairy operations.

The calf should not be hung upside down.

This outdated practice is still being performed in around 66% of cattle operations in the U.S.

When the calf is upside down, fluids from the digestive tract are lost, causing dehydration, while the weight of the digestive organs compresses the lungs, impairing normal breathing of the calf.

Difficult calvings, known as dystocia, not only affect the health and performance of calves, but also the cow.

During a dystocia calving, the calf can experience a lack of oxygen, producing metabolic acidosis.

This metabolic disturbance decreases the calf's ability to nurse and regulate its body temperature.

In addition, the absorption of immunoglobulins in the calf's GI tract is affected.

All of these negative effects increase a calf's susceptibility to diseases during the first days of life.

In addition, dystocia is one of the most common causes of broken bones in newborn calves.

For calves that have experienced, or are suspected to have experienced a difficult calving, personnel must perform a complete health assessment and provide continuous monitoring of vitals during the first hours of life in order to timely provide any necessary treatment and improve calf survival in the operation.

There are noticeable signs that can help maternity personnel identify the calf experienced a dystocia birth.

Often, especially in large operations where multitasking is required, farm personnel may discover newborn calves in the closed up pen without having witnessed the birth.

They might not know if the cow experienced any difficulty during delivery.

A calf presenting with yellow coloration is a sign that the calf was stressed during labor.

This yellow coloration indicates that the calf was stressed and defecated its first feces, called meconium, inside the uterus.

Another sign of a difficult calving includes swelling of the head, tongue, and/or extremities, meaning that the calf's blood supply was compromised during delivery.

Lastly, any abnormal calf behavior such as fast breathing, general weakness, and limping or being unable to stand up, can be indicative of dystocia births, and maternity personnel should provide proper care immediately.

Regardless of if the calf experiences a difficult birth or not, all calves must receive the proper amount of good quality colostrum in a timely manner.

Calves are born without immunological defenses, and build their defenses through the absorption of immunoglobulins presented in the colostrum.

The absorption of these immunoglobulins by the calf's GI tract is time sensitive, and that only decreases until 24 hours after birth.

Although the optimal time for the first colostrum feeding of newborn calves is within the first hour after birth, within four hours is still considered excellent, and between six and eight hours is considered acceptable.

Furthermore, the amount and quantity of colostrum fed are crucial for providing adequate immunity to newborn calves.

At least two quarts of good quality colostrum containing greater than 50 milligrams per milliliter of immunoglobulin G must be fed at a temperature of 102 to 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, it is ideal to feed three to four quarts of good quality colostrum, especially if colostrum quality is unknown.

Personnel should measure colostrum quality using a Brix refractometer or a colostrometer to ensure proper colostrum quality.

For more information regarding the use of these devices, please watch the next Learn Now video of the maternity management practices series.

When feeding colostrum, always use a bottle or a tube feeder to ensure that the calf drinks the required colostrum quantity.

In Pennsylvania, approximately 87% of the farms use bottles, while 11% use tube feeders.

The following video demonstrates how to feed a calf using a tube feeder.

First, the person must get the calf up.

Restrain the calf in a corner or against the side of the pen and place your legs around its neck while facing the same direction as the calf.

Then open the mouth of the calf by placing a finger in the corner of the mouth, and introduce a probe over the tongue.

Once the tube is in the mouth, gently slide the probe up and back towards the left of the mouth until you feel a slight resistance.

Next, maintain a constant light pressure and allow the calf to swallow the probe.

This may take a few seconds, so be patient.

Once the calf has swallowed the probe, slide the probe inside the esophagus.

The personnel must confirm that the probe is inside the esophagus by observing or touching the probe protruding from the left side of the neck, and assessing that the calf is breathing normally.

If the probe is misplaced in the airway, the calf will not be able to breathe or will be breathing with difficulty.

This is a most serious consequence of incorrectly tubing a calf, since the colostrum will then be administered inside the lungs instead of the stomach, causing severe pneumonia or death.

However, with proper training and taking the correct precautions, tubing is a safe technique for administering colostrum.

Once the tube is in the correct position, the colostrum container attached to the tube must be raised above the calf to allow the colostrum to enter the stomach by gravity.

If the calf moves during this procedure, be patient and wait until the animal relaxes before continuing, and reposition the tube as needed.

It is worth mentioning that this video explains only the steps and techniques of the tube feeding procedure.

However, this is not sufficient, and hands-on training by an experienced educator is needed.

Bottle feeding may appear to be an easier and less risky procedure compared to tube feeding, but it can take more time and sometimes the calf will not drink the total amount of colostrum.

Similar to tube feeding, the calf must be in a standing position.

Then, present the nipple to the calf allowing it to grab on and start drinking from the bottle.

Hold the bottle at a 45-degree angle above its head, mimicking the position of the cow's udder.

During the first hours of life, newborn calves are uncoordinated and will often fall, temporarily stopping the colostrum feeding process.

The personnel must be patient, restarting the process to ensure that the calf drinks the total amount of colostrum required.

Thank you for watching, and for more information regarding proper colostrum practices, watch the next module of the maternity management practices Learn Now video series.