The rate of outbreaks caused by raw, unpasteurized milk and products made from it was 150 times greater than outbreaks linked to pasteurized milk, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Updated: 02/21/2012
Professional heifer growers are faced with the challenge of raising healthy calves while still paying close attention to rearing costs and profit. Heifer raisers have several options for liquid feeding programs for young calves including whole (saleable) milk, transition milk, waste or discard milk, and milk replacer. Factors that may be considered in selecting a liquid feeding program may include the number of calves fed, economics and cash flow, nutritional characteristics, calf performance targets, resource availability (e.g.
Source:
Sandra Godden DVM, DVSc
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN 55108
This was the start of a conversation that I have had with my regular Monday morning client for the past several years. I’d shrug and say “Nothin’, how about with you?”
But whenever I would return from my annual American Association of Bovine Practitioners meeting, I never got off that easily. There has always been a responsibility on my part to pass along information that I learned at the meeting to this particular client. His thought process was that if I needed to miss a weekly herd check, it had better benefit him in some way.
While research has documented conclusively that pasteurizing waste milk significantly reduces bacterial levels in the liquid calf feed source, USDA researchers have taken an interesting look at how the feeding practice affects long-term gut flora in the animals.
Calf management has become increasingly important for many dairy producers, as scientific evidence suggests that the early stages of a heifer’s development can have long-lasting effects on her future production.
As such, more attention has been given to adequate colostrum feeding soon after birth.
Source:
Matthew Walpole
Department of Animal and Poultry Science
University of Saskatchewan
Just a decade ago, pasteurizing colostrum was virtually unheard of in the U.S. dairy industry. Then, as the benefits of pasteurizing waste milk for calves were realized and the practice was embraced on-farm, interest in colostrum was sparked as well. Could the bacteria-reducing, calf-performance-enhancing results of pasteurization also be applied to colostrum?
The objective of this study was to determine amount and composition of waste milk (WM) generated by 13 dairy farms and to measure effectiveness of on-farm pasteurizers. Waste milk was sampled bi-weekly from three farms located in North Carolina (NC) for 28 weeks and twice from ten farms in California (CA) in June 2005 and Jan. 2006. Farms ranged in size from 530 to 7000 milk cows and included a 30,000 head calf ranch. Amount of waste milk generated ranged from 2.48 – 9.84 L/calf/d.
Source:
Michael Chase Scott
Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Dairy Science (Management)
Robert E. James, Chair
Michael L. McGilliard
John F. Currin
Utilization of waste milk as a source of nutrition for the growing calf. Waste milk is comprised of transition milk from cows during the first three days after calving and that collected from cows treated with antibiotics or removed from the milking string due to other illness. Surveys from Wisconsin and results from field studies conducted in North Carolina and California show it contains in excess of 29% fat and 27% protein. This compares very favorably to the nutrient content of 20% fat: 20% protein of most traditional milk replacers.
Source:
Robert E. James and M. Chase Scott
Dept. of Dairy Science
Virginia Tech