Raising Healthy Heifers

Helping dairy replacements reach their full genetic potential.

A good health management program for replacement heifers helps to ensure that they reach their  genetic potential. “When a heifer is born she’s got this blueprint of genetic potential to do a certain
job or perform a certain amount in her life,” says Don Gardner, DVM, a dairy practitioner who custom raises heifers near Huddleston, Va.

“Everything that we slip up on chips away at that blueprint and potential,” says Dr. Gardner. “Our job as heifer raisers, or dairy farmers, is to help her all we can to express her genetic potential.

“Every time a heifer has an adverse health event, she’s lost a certain portion of her genetic potential.

Good Start

Dr. Gardner provides these recommendations for helping heifers get off to a good start:

• Feed heifer calves at least four quarts of colostrum as soon as possible after birth.
• Remove heifers from the dam and put them in clean, dry individual hutches or calf pens.
• Feed heifer calves a quality, highlydigestible, milk replacer or pasteurized whole milk in a quantities high enough to sustain adequate growth during the first two months of life.
• To help prevent respiratory and scours problems, heifers should be raised in a dry, well-ventilated environment.
• After they are weaned and until they become springers, heifers should be raised in groups of the same size and age. This helps to limit physical competition so that they have the opportunity to eat and grow to their potential.
• Feed heifers a ration in adequate amounts that is formulated to meet the nutritional needs of the size and age group.

“If you follow these guidelines, raising heifers is a lot easier,” says Dr. Gardner. While it might sound easy, it often can be a challenge to get it done, he says. “In reality, it seems to be harder to pay attention
to these things than it is to talk about them.”

Health Considerations Dr. Gardner suggests that you work with your veterinarian to help develop health protocols that fit your specific production situation and goals. “We have a recommended vaccination protocol that we want our clients to implement before they bring their heifers to us,” he explains. “That
is extremely important in allowing these calves to build immunity so that when they become stressed they can weather those stresses and go on and do well.&rdquo

Dry Cow

The vaccination protocol begins with the dry cow, according to Dr. Gardner. “If you want the colostrum you’re going to feed to the calf to contain the appropriate antibodies to protect the calf, it’s important that cow be vaccinated so she will have the antibodies in her blood to put into the colostrum.”

Prior to breeding, the cow should be vaccinated with a modified live IBR, BVD, PI3, BRSV, and a 5-way Leptospirosis vaccine every year, Dr. Gardner says. “During the dry period, the types of vaccines that we routinely recommend are E. coli, rotavirus and coronavirus.

“If the cow gets those vaccines while they’re dry, then their colostrum is going to be high in those antibodies to protect the calf the first 8 or 10 days of life.”

Calf Vaccination

After the calf is 1- or 2-weeks- old, Dr. Gardner recommends vaccinating it for the same viruses for  which that cow has been vaccinated. “Those viral vaccines would be boostered a week or so before they’re weaned—before they go into group pens— because that’s typically where one of your
respiratory problems is going to occur.”

Scours

Scours is mainly caused by inadequate nutrition, Dr. Gardner explains. “It’s a problem associated with lack of getting enough quality colostrum into the calf in atimely fashion or not feeding a quality milk
replacer product.

“It’s amazing to me how many calves are fed waste milk on farms and if you culture this waste milk the coliforms and the bacteria counts are off the charts. We feed this bacterial soup to these baby calves and then wonder why they get scours.”

Respiratory Problems

Respiratory problems typically are caused by a lack of adequate ventilation for calves and wet and unsanitary living conditions. It is imperative that calves always have a dry place to lie down, says Dr. Gardner.

Mastitis

Dr. Gardner believes that mastitis is caused from two basic problems:
1. A lack of good fly control during summer months. “You can get a lot of these biting flies that will bite the teat ends and irritate the teats and you wind up with mastitis. So it’s really important in heifers that are 6 months old and older, and on pasture or dry lot, to maintain good fly control.”
2. Heifer’s sucking one another. Dr. Gardner says to prevent this, you can get your calves drinking milk from buckets or if you bottle feed them, you should ensure that the nipple has a small enough opening
in it so the calf has to work to nurse the milk out. It’s also important that calves be weaned off of milk for a couple of weeks before they’re grouped together.

Biosecurity

The biggest lapse in biosecurity comes from events that take place on the farm, rather than from off the farm, says Dr. Gardner. An example is employees going from the adult cow herd into the area where baby calves are raised. “Everybody needs to understand that when they go from the adult cowherd to the
baby calf facility, they need to wash their hands and their boots,” Dr. Gardner says.

Another biosecurity issue is, some producers purchase replacements without knowing the heath status of the herds of origin. “They don’t have a clue as to whether they’ve got a contagious mastitis problem, whether they’ve bought animals from a herd that has Johne’s disease or they have mycoplasma in
the milking herd, or that the animals have been vaccinated and tested for persistent infection BVD,” Dr. Gardner says.

“I wouldn’t go to a sale where I did not have any prior knowledge of the health status of that herd, buy animals, bring them right home and turn them loose with the cows, cautions Dr. Gardner.

“If I wanted to buy animals to enter into my herd, I would plan ahead. I would be picking animals from herds where I had the opportunity to assess the bulk tank, assess the Johne’s situation, and test
the animals for PI BVD.