coloQuick

Hygiene, Consistency, Health — Revolutionising Beestings Management, coloQuick !!!

Consistency Replacing Chance: All farmers are aware of the importance of early colostrum feeding. Still, it just happens much too often that things get out of hand by chance. For various reasons, the optimum time and quantity of beestings administered to the new-born calf are not respected.

Rapid Check of Colostrum Quality: 50 - 60% of the colostrum used for first feeding in a herd does not exhibit the quality needed to ensure sufficient protection from the first meal of a calf's life. Visual assessment of the colostrum alone is insufficient to determine the actual quality (S. M. Gulliksen et al. (Norway), J Dairy Sci 91:704-712 (2008)). Checking colostrum quality with a colostrometer is of so high importance because only the colostrum of the best cows should be used.

Easy and Hygienic Colostrum Handling: The beestings are filled directly into a disposable bag. This is how any contact with unhygienic equipments, hands, and drinking accessories is avoided. Then the colostrum is stored in a deep freezer or refrigerator and retrieved from it when needed. By constituting a colostrum bank in this manner, you can have peace of mind, being certain that there will always be enough good colostrum available.

Quick and Gentle Defrosting of Deep-frozen Colostrum: Common practices frequently are inadequate to defrost the deep-frozen colostrum and warm it to drinking temperature. A microwave oven or a hot double boiler would compromise valuable globulins (44% reduction, according to U of Applied Sc of Soest, topAgrar, 11/2009). Only when the milk is warmed for no longer than 15 minutes at a maximum of 45°C (113°F) and is stirred permanently, all antibodies remain intact.

Optimum Animal Health Right from the Start: Calves that drink 4 litres if colostrum right after birth give significantly more milk when they grow to be cows: plus 950 kg in their first lactation and 1,650 kg in their second lactation than those in the control group with only 2 litres of colostrum (S.N. Faber et al. (U of Arizona), The Professional Animal Scientist 21:420-425 (2005)).

Gentle Colostrum Pasteurisation: The beestings are gently warmed to 60°C (140°F) for 60 minutes and then positively cooled down. In this manner, all immunising elements (immunglobulins) remain intact, whilst pathogens are destroyed. As a consequence, antibody levels in the blood are considerably higher, which in turn means better immune defenses in the calf (J. A. Elizondo-Salazar and A. J. Heinrichs (The Pennsylvania State University), J Dairy Sci 92:4565-4571 (2009); J. L. Johnson, S. M. Godden et al. (U of Minnesota), J Dairy Sci 90:5189-5198 (2007); M. Vesterager Laurensen, K. Helle Sloth (Agrotech, Denmark), Aug. 2009).