14 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN February 2025 TRUSTING YOUR COWS TO PRODUCE THE BEST COLOSTRUM Ensuring the birth of a healthy calf and maintaining its health are crucial for a successful and profitable calving season. A robust immune system safeguards calves from pathogens encountered in their new environment outside the womb. Unfortunately, calves are born with naked immunity. Newborn calves must initially acquire immunity through passive transfer before natural immunity is developed. Colostrum, the first milk a cow produces, is often called liquid gold due to its high content of immunoglobulins, bioactive factors and nutrients that provide essential initial nutrition and critical passive transfer of immunity to the calf. The window of opportunity for effective immune transfer via the newborn calf’s digestive tract is limited. Colostral immunoglobulins are large molecules and the calf’s digestive tract is only receptive to these molecules within the first few hours after birth. Encouraging calves to nurse and receive this vital first dose of colostrum before 12 hours of age is critical. We have established colostrum intake is a race against time, but what about colostrum production from the cow? The dairy industry regularly monitors colostrum quality and supplements colostrum when needed. However, on beef operations, it is not common practice and is more difficult to test colostrum quality. There is a tendency to trust cows to produce and provide adequate colostrum for their calves. Many factors affect colostrum production, including a cow’s breed and age, vaccination status and nutrition. Research continues to prove that maternal nutrition, including trace mineral nutrition, impacts the lifetime health and performance of the calf, starting at conception. Cows receiving a well-balanced diet, including trace minerals (zinc, manganese, copper and cobalt), maintain adequate body condition scores (BCS). Cows with BCS between 4 and 6 at calving produce colostrum with higher immunoglobulin levels. Beyond BCS, research has demonstrated that trace mineral nutrition can enhance colostrum yield and quality in cows. A recent study conducted at North Dakota State University indicated that beef heifers supplemented with inorganic trace minerals produced a higher total weight and volume of colostrum compared to heifers on a control diet without added trace minerals. Although another study by the same research group did not observe an impact on colostrum quality, they found that calves from dams supplemented with inorganic trace minerals exhibited a better immune response to vacciCHANDA ENGEL AND JANICE WOLFINGER | ACCOUNT MANAGERS, ZINPRO PRODUCTION
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTMxNTA5