Feeding colostrum to older calf ?

[ohiosteve]

We had a cow have twins and she is only accepting one of the calves. This makes my daughter very happy because now she has a bottle baby. Some friends of ours who dairy have plenty of dump milk they let us have from fresh cows, but my question is ; Are we asking for scour problems since much of the milk we get is still pretty thick and yellow? The calf is only a few days old and a picture of health now, should I keep feeding it this thicker colostrum like milk? Thanks

 

[KNERSIE]

Most dairies here use colostrum to raise heifers, the key is it must be a mixed batch from various cows in various stages of being fresh and don't go from this to milk replacer and back as supply increases or decreases.

 

[ohiosteve]

Thanks KNERSIE, I have had problems in the past with mixing milk and milk replacer in the past. How about mastitic milk?

 

[bigbull338]

nothing wrong with using fresh cow or colostrum milk to a bottle baby.but as was said do not be switching from that milk to powdered milk.i switched from cows milk to powdered milk an back an forth.but i didnt like it at all,because i had to watch all the time for scours.

 

[regolith]

No problem with feeding closotrum to older calves, just as said, don't switch back and forth (and that is also between colostrum and normal milk, not just whole milk/milk powder - I don't know if it would cause a stomach upset at two to three weeks old but the vets say a too abrupt transition is the common cause of scours at 4 - 7 days).

As for mastitis milk, it's good milk and you won't see any problems from feeding it. There's theories that it can cause issues with mastitis/antibiotic resistance in later life, I don't know if any of that has been proven and I myself don't feed it to replacement calves while the cow is being treated - I would feed it to calves I wasn't keeping as replacements.