Reducing Disease Pressure on Newborn Calves in your Maternity Pen

We do the best we can when it comes to our calving pens. There isn’t always time to pressure wash them, sometimes there are huge slugs of calvings that don't allow time for cleaning, and sometimes, quite frankly, it’s not as high on the priority list as it should be. 

With all of those things in mind, there are a few ways that you can help your calves get a stronger start. Depending on your disease circumstances on your farm, your calves might be able to deal with more challenges, but one thing we know for sure, when that calf first hits the ground, she has absolutely no defense against the world around her. That’s where we have to step in and make sure that that first drop to the ground is a good one. 

First and foremost, the bedding in the maternity pen should be dry, clean, and plentiful. Bedding isn’t cheap, but neither is having a sick or potentially future culled cow because she was born in a wet, dirty bedded area. How can you tell if the bedding is good enough? The knee drop test! How do you do this? Easy, go to multiple spots in the pen and drop to your knees, if it hurts, they get dirty, or they get wet, it’s time to put some new bedding in! 

AVA Calf Tip: Even if you don’t have time to take all of the dirty bedding out, spray DK-ll over the entire pen including the walls, old bedding, and gates, then put new bedding over the top. This isn’t perfect, but it will help to clean up the environment more than just adding new bedding. 

Second, get your calves and cows separated as soon as the calf is licked clean. Cows carry and shed MANY different and dangerous things during calving, because it’s stressful! The last thing you want when you have a newborn calf is to give her more time than necessary to pick those diseases up. Let the cow lick her calf clean and move the calf to a separate, dry, clean, holding pen. 

AVA Calf Tip: If the calf was born somewhere where she shouldn’t have been, like the free stall barn, or if she got dirty for some other reason, consider using warm water (100F) and 1 oz. DK-ll per gallon of water to wash her off. This will help her get cleaned up, warm her up, and get her going on the right hoof. Make sure you dry her all the way with a towel or keep her in a clean warming box (sprayed with DK-ll mixed at 1 oz Dk-ll to 1 gallon of water between each calf!) until she is dry. This will keep her from getting cold stressed, remember a DRY newborn calf’s thermal neutral zone is 60F-77F and above, a wet calf’s thermal neutral zone is MUCH higher than that, closer to 80F. With a calf only having 3-4% body fat at birth, they don’t have a lot to keep them warm. Towel drying will also help to wake her up and get her going!

These are just a few simple ways to help reduce the disease pressure on your newborn calves! There are many more steps to making sure the calving pen is set up the best way possible for your calves, we will continue to dive into those in the following weeks!

If you are looking to up your maternity pen game, send us a message and let’s get started on getting your calves started stronger!