Researchers are working to uncover cow-specific and environmental factors associated with colostrum yield and quality.
Colostrum yield was associated with a range of cow-specific factors including the sex of the calf, whether the calf was a stillbirth, gestation length, dry period length, parity, previous lactation length and previous lactation 305-day mature-equivalent milk production.” – Trent Westhoff
Source: American Agriculturist, November 29, 2022. Link. A webinar on the results of this study is posted at vod.video.cornell.edu.
INSIGHTS: Our industry routinely pushes messages <Link> about the importance of high-quality colostrum as a major key to calf health and growth especially within the first 24 hours of life. Identifying how to manage factors that affect a cow during transition and calving can enhance colostrum availability and quality as well as how well new calves produce throughout its lifetime.
It is important to educate dairy producers about the factors being studied so they can add that knowledge to their intuition derived from daily work with cows and calves.” – Kirk Augustine