colestrum

[hopalong]

I realize I am going to get hammered for asking a dumb question. but I have done a search in the archives and could not find an answer to this question.
when does the cow produce the colestrum?
The reason for asking i have a cow due 3-20-06, I have her in a calving pen, noticed last night that a calf from another cow had got his head thru the 12" spacing on my pipe corral seperating them and was sucking on the preg cow. should I be getting some colestrum for when she does drop?
YES I took care of the problem, calf has been moved totally away from her as were all that were close by!
YES I know I could call a VET for this, but since she has not dropped I do not think it warrants a call to a busy person when I know some one will answer from the board and I am willing to take my lumps.
Thank you for your kind response

 

[jcarkie]

depends on if she nursed her out or just a little. i had one that nursed on one of the front quarters only once, a couple of weeks prior, it didn't seem to hurt anything. i keep an eye on the little thieves, last year i seperated cows with calves from the one that were about to drop, less problems that way.

 

[AngusLimoX]

Pretty sad state of affairs on a board when someone is afraid to ask a question. And an intelligent and reasonable question at that.

Off the top of my head I would have said not to worry about it if she wasn't stripped right down.

Good Luck with the calving! :lol:

Sorry hopalong, I stupidly pasted the wrong link for you. As others have said the cows produce the really good stuff at birth, not before.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

There is no easy answer. A cow only produces a one-time supply of colostrum. This is produced over a few days, week or even the month prior to calving. Depends on the individual cow. And you NEVER know if there WAS adequate colostrum for the newborn. Just because it survives and appears healthy, if it didn't get adequate colostrum early enough, it may always be prone to diseases. I have read that calves receiving ample colostrum within 1 hour of birth even do better on a feedlot than calves that were deprived. :shock:
So, PROBABLY the calf only sucked 1 quarter - who knows. But, if the baby didn't suck her empty, she probably has adequate strenth of colostrum for the new calf.
Whether you suppliment the newborn AT BIRTH also depends on the exposure it is going to have to pathogens immediately following birth. Will she calve in a very clean area, and turned out into clean pasture or a clean lot.
Sorry there is no black & white answer for you. And this wasn't a stupid question - and no, you need not call a vet.

 

[certherfbeef]

Keep in mind that once you suppliment with bagged colustrum that stops any good the cow's colostrum will do.

 

[buckaroo_bif]

Very reasonable question I'm afrraid I don't have a very good answer for you. Besides Jeanne covered things quite well. She always does!

 

[susie]

I had a very similar incident here. I caught our steer nursing our pregnant heifer. Talked to the Vet, he said not to worry, the majority of the colostrum is produced in the last week.
I looked it up just to verify. Can't reme,ber where I found the info but read that the colostrum is produced 3-6 weeks ahead of time, but the full antibodies really aren't in it until the last week.
So I didn't give any additional colostrum, because I was pretty certain the steer hadn't sucked much and it was a few weeks before calving that I seperated them. I was careful to put on a very good lock on the fence because I did NOT want to tube feed the baby colostrum. We butchered the steer early because I don't have alot of property and couldn't chance him sucking all the baby's milk.


Susie

 

[Ryder]

Hopalong, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Calf reaching through pipe fence, I doubt if he could reach all four quarters, much less suck them all dry.

Colostrum will be secreted for 24 hours after calving, then the transition milk from 24 to 72 hours. So I think there should be adequate amount for calf when she calves.

There is an article on colostrum at:
http://www.calfnotes.com
Go to archieves, click 'colostrum feeding', click calf note #03.

(Your question is not dumb.)

 

[warpaint]

Never heard of colestrum? What exactly is that? Ive heard of colostrum. Colestrum? That is a new one to me.

This could very well be why they didn't want to ask!!!
I wouldn't get carried away talking about someones spelling, as I've seen most of your posts. :roll:

 

[memanpa]

Never heard of colestrum? What exactly is that? Ive heard of colostrum. Colestrum? That is a new one to me.

just wondering ttclm are you a spelling teacher?
or are you just trying to be funny?
no wonder people are reluctant to ask questions with them getting smart a$$ed remarks like you made!
legit question wrong spelling BIG DEAL! everyone but you seemed to know what was being asked!
hoppy don't let guys discourage you he is just posting to build his post count up

 

[hopalong]

Thanks everyone, probabally my fault for not finding any references to my problem due to spelling errors.
I feel better now knowing that all should be ok.
This will be my first calf since i got back in the business, lots to relearn and thanks to this board i am relearning.
Thanks again

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Keep in mind that once you suppliment with bagged colustrum that stops any good the cow's colostrum will do.

I guess I don't agree with that. From all I've read, the calves lining of the stomach keeps taking in the antibodies right up to the 24 hours old - it just keeps taking up less & less.
So, if the first thing it gets is powdered colostrum, yes it will obsorb it best (which it is not as good as Mom's - because Mom has the antibodies for the diseases on your farm) but it will still keep obsorbing from Moms.
But, this cow was due in 3 days (I think) and depending on HOW MUCH the calf stole, getting powdered c might be a whole lot better than getting milk. Always a judgement call.

 

[certherfbeef]

Keep in mind that once you suppliment with bagged colustrum that stops any good the cow's colostrum will do.

I guess I don't agree with that. From all I've read, the calves lining of the stomach keeps taking in the antibodies right up to the 24 hours old - it just keeps taking up less & less.
So, if the first thing it gets is powdered colostrum, yes it will obsorb it best (which it is not as good as Mom's - because Mom has the antibodies for the diseases on your farm) but it will still keep obsorbing from Moms.
But, this cow was due in 3 days (I think) and depending on HOW MUCH the calf stole, getting powdered c might be a whole lot better than getting milk. Always a judgement call.

Not arguing, but my statement came right from a vet.

 

[Beef11]

I stupidly pasted the wrong link for you. As others have said the cows produce the really good stuff at birth, not before.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract

I think that all of the antibodies necessary to establish passive immunity are all almost there prior to calving. A calf suckling a cow prior to partruition could cause an endocrine response in the udder allowing the "good stuff" to be dropped earlier.

Keep in mind that once you suppliment with bagged colustrum that stops any good the cow's colostrum will do.

I don't agree with this statement. I would like to know the reasoning behind it.

if the first thing it gets is powdered colostrum, yes it will obsorb it best (which it is not as good as Mom's - because Mom has the antibodies for the diseases on your farm) but it will still keep obsorbing from Moms.
But, this cow was due in 3 days (I think) and depending on HOW MUCH the calf stole, getting powdered c might be a whole lot better than getting milk. Always a judgement call.

Very well put.

 

[ctlbaron]

That's why folks are afraid to ask TTCLM. Back to the original question. I've heard colostrum is produced in the last week before calving. I raise a lot of bottle calves so I 've talked to vets on several occasions about the colostrum issue. He says that in lots of cases that the bought colostrum is as good as what the cow has. Some cows make a weak colostrum and some make a good colostrum. Some cows make such poor colostrum that the bagged stuff would be much better than the cows. At least its uniform. Lots of dairies pull the calf as soon as it's born if they catch it and give the bought colostrum. It works pretty well. I have good luck with the calves that only get the bought stuff.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The new powdered colostrum is much better than it used to be. Life Line is as good as the average cows colostrum (rated the best in an article I read), but none of them are "specific" for your individual farm. That's the main reason the cow's is best.

 

[randiliana]

The new powdered colostrum is much better than it used to be. Life Line is as good as the average cows colostrum (rated the best in an article I read), but none of them are "specific" for your individual farm. That's the main reason the cow's is best.

Up here if you are after powdered colostrum, Headstart is the best kind, although there are several more on the market now, and I don't know what they are like.