What does pH have to do with calves?
When was the last time you had the water tested in your calf barn?
Water quality is something that gets talked about a lot when it comes to cows, but it is something that is often overlooked when it comes to its importance in the calf barn.
It is recommended that you get your water tested at least two times per year! A lot can change in 6 months, especially when there are drought and flood conditions altering the water table and other factors that impact water quality.
We have had our own battles with water here on our farm, that’s how we know for a fact it’s vital that it’s high quality.
The first thing that needs to be covered to understand water quality is pH and how it impacts calves. Almost all bodily processes rely on pH.
The blood, the gut, the water within the body, the water going into the calf, the pH of the milk, all affect the calf and how well she functions.
You probably already know this because when a calf scours and gets acidotic, it means that her blood pH is too low. What makes it crazy is her body can only handle her blood pH changing by a couple tenths of a point, and it’s a BIG problem, but blood pH isn’t the only time pH in a calf is important!
Now, while water pH likely isn’t going to kill your calves like low blood pH would (we’ll talk about that in a minute), it’s very possible that it could be causing them to perform at less than optimal levels.
pH is highly variable between well water sources and is very important to milk fed calves being fed milk replacer, because a large portion of their diet is made up of that well water.
It is also important to know the pH of your water when it comes to mixing cleaning solutions, because the goal with them is to get to a certain pH, but if your water is very alkaline or very acidic, you might need to double check to make sure your cleaning solutions are at the right pH to be fully effective.
If your water has a pH of 8.2, and the solution you are cleaning with needs to be used at a pH of 2, you are likely going to need more product to get the cleaning solutions to the proper pH to be effective. The same goes the other way!
How else can water pH effect your calves? Well, this is where is gets really tricky, because there is so little research done on how abomasal pH works and more specifically what causes abomasal ulcers, that it was really hard to write this article because of the pure lack of information. But here’s what we learned from our calves on our farm because, unfortunately, we have a little too much experience with abomasal ulcers.
So, who cares what the pH of the water is? The calves do! The higher the pH of the milk being put into the calf’s abomasum, the harder her body has to work to get that pH down to 2.2 and get her meal ready for digestion. Granted, she’s pretty efficient at it still, but everything with calves is a delicate balance of processes.
Again, who cares? Well, the longer it takes for that process to happen, the longer the milk will sit in the abomasum, the longer it sits in the abomasum, the higher the risk for things like bloat, ulcers, and other digestive issues to occur, because it gives those nasty bacteria time to multiple using the milk as a food source.
Now, this is NOT to say that a certain pH will cause these things to happen OR that this is the only reason that those digestive issues can occur, but it can set them up to be more likely to have these issues because it throws off the balance of her system. Again, anything that we can do to avoid disrupting the delicate balance of her system and delaying abomasal emptying is key to avoiding this issue.
It is thought that abomasal ulcer are due to many different factors including stress, pH, osmolality, milk replacer quality, NSAIDS milk temperature, and feeding inconsistencies. ** Bacteria, especially the ones we want to stay away from as calf raisers, thrive in environments where the pH is around 7 (neutral).
Now, you might be wondering if the opposite is true, can milk be too acidic? In short, not really. Feeding acidified milk has been something that has been done for a long time, and typically has a pH of 4.2-5.8. Since the acidified milk is going into an environment that’s already acidic, no harm no foul. The only concern with low pH milk is the palatability, which has been noted to decrease with pH levels below 4.2.
Another thing to consider is that pH directly impacts bacterial growth. Bacteria LOVE neutral pH, and what is milk? Pretty close to neutral. So anything that we can do to even slightly lower the pH can help inhibit bacterial growth.
What does this look like in practice?
Most of the things we feed calves are fantastic hosts for bacteria, colostrum, milk, milk replacer, it’s a field day for them! They’re warm, moist, full of sugar, and sometimes in less than ideal sanitary conditions.
Let’s look at colostrum. It has a pH of around 6.25, and it checks all of the boxes above. Perfect for bacterial growth.
Let’s say you add 1 oz of DK-ll to 1 gallon of colostrum. It will drop the pH around 5.5. That makes the conditions for bacterial growth less than optimal right off the bat. The key to keeping bacterial levels low is to maintain that pH of 6.0, which DK-ll does a great job of doing!
Don’t forget, bacteria in colostrum at room temperature will DOUBLE every 20 minutes. Well, it won’t be able to do that if it’s busy fighting a pH battle.
To take it one step further, you could also use it to clean your equipment for milking and storing colostrum, because the DK-ll not only reduces bacteria levels, but it also keeps the pH of the surface low for extended periods, which inhibits bacterial growth.
It helps you get ahead before you even get started. The less opportunities you give bacteria to grow, the better off you’ll be in the long run.
While these are just a few examples of how you can help in keeping bacteria away by keeping the pH of solutions and surfaces low, it’s important to keep pH in the back of your mind when considering calf health and calf barn sanitation. It plays a role in many aspects!
Stick around for our next article explaining how we came to the conclusion that a perfect storm caused us to lose 6 calves to perforated abomasal ulcers (a hole in their stomach), and how we corrected it.
Are you looking to improve your calves gut health whether it be scours, bloat, ulcers, or other digestive issues? We can help you troubleshoot because we’ve been there, done that.
Get our free (and printable) Gut Health Guide by sending us a message!
** Please follow the links below to form your own thoughts and opinions on abomasal ulceration and the causes. There is very little research done on these tops. Most of what is talked about in the paragraph before the asterisk is anecdotal evidence from our farm. We have not performed research studies to confirm this information.
Sources:
https://calfsessions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Calf-Sessions_Effects-of-Acidified-
MR.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002203021831155X
https://www.dairyherd.com/news-news/abomasal-ulcers-calves
https://www.calfnotes.com/pdffiles/CN115.pdf