At HeadStart Dairy, we understand that a
successful dairy herd starts with healthy calves!
Several years ago, we were noticing some issues with the overall health of our calves.
We began looking into the root cause of these issues, and quickly learned that in addition to some sanitary measures that needed to be taken in the maternity pen, we also had low maternal colostrum quality and an inconsistent protocol.
Our veterinarian recommended that we try implementing a colostrum product to improve the colostrum our calves were getting.
We researched multiple solutions to find that SCCL colostrum was by far the best product on the market! Their colostrum is made with whole bovine colostrum, not made by other sources for immunity or fat. This means, our calves are getting consistent, high-quality colostrum with all the natural components that they need to be healthy and get started off right!
We started using SCCL colostrum to enrich or boost our maternal colostrum that was low quality.
This simple solution quickly ensured that each calf was now getting a high level of antibodies on day one. The first calves on this easy protocol were noticeably healthier.
Since then, SCCL has educated us on other ways to utilize their colostrum powder to make sure each calf is achieving successful passive transfer of immunity.
Our high-risk calves from factors like cold-stress, dystocia and twins all now benefit from a full replacement dose of SCCL colostrum. We also feed SCCL colostrum to our calves born at night to ensure that those calves are fed right away, and we do not have to wait for the maternal colostrum collected the next morning. Feeding SCCL colostrum also mitigates our risk for potential disease transmission through our maternal colostrum.
In addition, we boost our whole milk with SCCL colostrum to mimic transition milk for our young calves in the first week. This helps establish a healthy and productive digestive tract for these calves to become efficient cows.
If you have other questions about our use of SCCL colostrum, please send us a message on Facebook.