Try two weeks. The dirty teat theory is interesting, but what about bottle calves?
dunmovin farms
> Calves are not born monogasrics,
> they have a by-pass for the first
> 24 hours (apx) that allows the
> cholostrum to go right to the
> intestine where antibodies can be
> absorbed across the gut wall, them
> normal digestion of milk occurs
> through the gut. Nursing is not as
> clean as you might think, cows lay
> down in feces and the teats become
> dirty, a source of bacteria. also
> they some times get pooped on on
> their head, bacteria, they also
> get into poop on the ground,
> bacteria, all of these bacteria
> get to the gut and develop a
> healthy microflora in the calf's
> digestive syst.
> Calves can begin to reumanate at
> 40 days, as evidenced in my own
> heard, a calf laying down chewing
> her cud at 40 days, they mimic
> their mothers in the pasture,
> picking at grass and grazing, they
> can't help but start reumanating.