Why Transition milk replacer is a permanent fixture in dairy farm’s calf nutrition

A County Tyrone dairy farm has reduced calf mortality to just one per cent and has no post-weaning growth checks thanks to a series of protocols including a system of nutrition that incorporates transition milk replacer and once-a-day feeding.

A County Tyrone dairy farm has reduced calf mortality to just one per cent and has no post-weaning growth checks thanks to a series of protocols including a system of nutrition that incorporates transition milk replacer and once-a-day feeding.

Father and son Kenny and Kyle McIlwaine run a crossbred dairy herd of Fleckvieh x Holsteins and Montbeliard x Holsteins near Newtownstewart, producing milk at an annual average yield of 9,000 litres/cow from twice a day milking.

Cows are vaccinated at drying off for the main scour-causing pathogens – rotavirus, coronavirus and e.coli – to protect their calves at their most vulnerable in the first few weeks of life.

Administering that vaccination approximately eight weeks before calving is ideal, says Dr Amanda Dunn, of Bonanza Calf Nutrition.

“It gives the cow enough time to mount an immune response to the vaccine so that she can pass these antibodies on in her colostrum to protect the calf,’’ she explains.

Calving gets underway at the beginning of September with the last of the herd calving in March, with calf birthweights of 40kg or heavier.

In the 2023/24 calving season, several sets of twins and a set of quadruplets saw 160 cows produce 170 calves.

Around 60 replacement heifers are retained while bull calves are sold at approximately a month of age.

Nutrition for bull and heifer calves is identical. Providing 5-star treatment to all calves when it comes to colostrum and transition milk feeding is a great way to reduce risk of disease spread, especially if both groups are reared on the same farm as calf scours etc are extremely transmissible, says Amanda.

As soon as a cow calves, she is milked and her calf is manually fed a minimum of four litres of her colostrum.

“If they want to drink more, they will get it,’’ says Kenny.

The first five feeds for all calves is their own dam’s colostrum. This alone gives these calves a head start in life, says Amanda. Although the antibodies in colostrum cannot pass into the bloodstream post 24 hours, colostrum contains a sea of other bioactive components which play a gigantic role in the baby calf’s immune system development. 

Following colostrum feeding, they receive Transformula, a transition milk replacer manufactured by Bonanza Calf Nutrition.

“We feed Transformula for the first three weeks to get them over the highest scour risk period,’’ Kyle explains.

Calves consume 3.5 litres morning and evening, mixed at a rate of 140g/litre to replicate cow transition milk.

Amanda advises that transition milk feeding is a very important source of nutrition, providing bioactive ingredients which have an important role to play in the maturation of a calf’s gastrointestinal tract.

Our recent trial work has highlighted the benefits of feeding a transition milk replacer (transformula) versus a standard milk replacer for 21 days. Results showed transformula fed calves to grow significantly better and had zero cases of scour compared to over 25% of calves that received the standard MR (read more here – link to trial data article).

“I wouldn’t not feed Transformula,’’ says Kenny. “From a calf health perspective the results since feeding it have been second to none with no bother with calf scours or respiratory issues.

“Last season we only lost two calves out of the batch – a 1% mortality rate.’’

Feeding sufficient colostrum within the first couple of hours of birth and continued feeding of colostrum and transition milk replacer up to three weeks of age is a “recipe for success’’ for calf health, says Amanda.

For Kenny and Kyle, a combination of excellent colostrum management, attention to detail and providing the best ingredients found in transition milk for gut development and stimulating the immune system in the early weeks, when the calf’s own immune system is kicking in is doing the trick for rearing healthy animals and meeting their target age at first calving of 24 months.

It will not always be feasible to feed cows own transition milk for three weeks. But with Transformula this gives the opportunity to extend feeding for longer and eradicate risk of transferring milk-borne diseases from cow to calf eg johnes/mycoplasma. It is the first transition milk replacer on the market and is the perfect alternative to help calves gain more weight, promote gut maturation and fight scour causing pathogens.