We know colostrum is the key to healthy calves and quality makes a difference. Kimberly Egan and Catherine Thrasher stress the importance of nonnegotiable protocols essential for ensuring effective colostrum handling and for getting calves off to a healthy start. They share their top five non-negotiables in this article:
- Follow proper cleaning and drying protocols
- Routinely measure bacterial load
- Maintain/replace esophageal feeders routinely, monitor pasteurization temperature
- Routinely measure colostrum quality and feeding protocols
- Properly cool and store colostrum
Source: Progressive Dairy, May 30, 2025. Link.
INSIGHTS: With so many steps and people involved to ensure high-quality colostrum is available, veterinary teams can provide value by auditing the colostrum protocols with key clients, especially as new help is hired.
An audit might be as simple as a five-minute show-and-tell during a farm visit initiated by a veterinary team member question such as, “While I’m here, let’s take a look at how you are handling colostrum? We’ve had a couple clients who needed to renew their colostrum handling protocols recently. These calves are too valuable to have a hiccup there.”