healthy farm-animals…

…in Southern Norway…

cows are good mothers…

If calving takes place in the open – maybe at night and unnoticed by the farmer, then there's generally no need to worry about the calf's health and welfare. Cows are good mothers, and left alone she will take good care of her calf.

Unless the cow signals that something is terribly wrong, or the tempera­ture is way below freezing – 20ºC below or lower, there's no need to rush out to bring the calf indoors until it is strong enough to walk quite some distance on its own. By then the calf has had its sips of milk from the mother, and the foundation for good health is laid.

if possible – leave it to the expert:

I could tell a few stories about “calving in the wild”, but the essense is that the mother-cow – even a first-timer – usually provides better for her calf for the first half a day or so than any human can, provided she is left alone with the task. It is therefore best to stand back and observe from a distance during this crucial period in a calf's life, and only intervene if really, really, necessary.

Remember that a cow follows her instincts – the cumulated knowledge gathered through millions of years, while we humans have to rely almost entirely on experience and what we have learned so far in one short life. Guess who is at an advantage here.

calves become what they drink…

Once we humans have taken over, it is important that we continue to feed the calf undiluted milk from its mother for at least two weeks. A calf should only get the richest milk the first few days, following the cows own production-sequence. Since a dairy cow normally produces much more in a day than her calf can possibly drink, and we can't deliver her production to the factory for at least 5 days to make sure the milk is “clean”, we have to store the milk for her calf.

Storing milk for the calf is easiest done by using day-sized containers with dates written on them, cool it – or freeze it down if necessary, and make sure the calf gets at least 5-8 liters whole milk a day, in small portions.

sour milk is good stuff:

That stored cow-milk goes sour isn't a problem. Soured milk makes excellent calf feed, and is much easier to store for a few days without the need for cooling-facilities. Soured milk must be stored at a relatively low temperature and in the dark in order to last for a couple of weeks without going bad though. A controlled fermentation-process improves the milk's bacterial balance and digestibility, and thereby has a positive effect on a sensitive calf-stomach.

Soured milk must be of good drinking-quality – not gone bad in any way, and must be stirred up and mixed well shortly before being used as calf-feed. The ideal temperature for the final portion fed to a calf, is around 25°Celcius.

transition to other fluid full-feed for calves:

After a couple of weeks the mother-milk can be slowly replaced by a similar product. We buy dried milk produced as full-feed for calves by our dairy-factory, and once we've finished a week long transition and found the right energy-balance, most of our calves do well and have a high intake of this replacement.

Getting the transition right is important. Adding some form of electrolytic stabilizer to the milk-replacement is sound investment in the calf's welfare and health. We want the calf to have a natural and high intake for its size, and a stable stomach.

As the full-feed we can buy costs at least as much as we receive in payment after selling the same amount of milk, it makes sense to use our own milk as calf-feed the entire time. We still buy and mix in small amounts of full-feed because we want an enriched balance in the calves diet, but the main ingredient in what we serve our calves is usually milk of our own produce that are held back for this purpose. Keeping the mix somewhat stable from meal to meal is very important.

mimicking nature:

We use feeding-bottles for each calf so it can suck naturally. These feeding-bottles range from 2-liters bottles for the first two-threee days, through 5-liters bottles during the first 3-4 weeks when calves are held in separate holding-boxes, all the way up to 12-liters containers for the one to three months old calves in the calf pen.

The flow of milk is restricted in these home made feeding bottle arrangements, so the calf's natural sucking-instinct can be satisfied over some time. This flow-restriction is important, as a calf's sucking-pattern is naturally adjusted to sucking from its mother, and the milk doesn't flow fast from her tits.

The exact amount a calf will drink in one go and during a day, depends on the calf's size, surrounding temperature, and, of course, its health. Strong sucking-reflexes and good appetite is usually a good healt-sign.

Generally: weak and/or erratic sucking-reflexes and appetite is most likely a sign that the calf is/feels in bad shape for whatever reason, or that the food or feeding-method is wrong. Checking everything if in doubt – also looking into potential infections, and making sure the calf is taking up enough energy even if we have to help it, is important.

If the milk-feeding arrangement is the only source of fluid, a one-month old calf may need as much as 20 liters of fluid a day. Energy-wise it should not be fed much more than the equivalent of around 8 liters of milk a day though. We solve this by feeding a thirsty calf pure, slightly warmed, water in the same feed-bottle once it has finished its milk-portion.

raw-milk as back-up:

I'm using the term “raw-milk” with the meaning we put into it here in Norway. “Raw-milk” is the high-energy milk a cow produces in preparation for calving. This “raw-milk” is characterized by being slightly yellow, creamy and extremely fat, and the production of raw-milk only lasts to a few days after calving.
Thereafter – for the rest of the lactation, the cow produces plain, ordinary, white milk.

Having some frozen raw-milk in reserve, makes sense on a farm. Not all cows, especially first-timers, are able to produce enough milk for their calves just after calving, and a calf's life and health depends on getting enough of this stuff.

Such frozen raw-milk can be a real energy booster, and a life-saver if a calf starts to show weaknesses during the first days and weeks of its life. Raw-milk is good for humans too, but it sure doesn't taste like regular milk.

We stock up on raw-milk in 1 1/2 liters bottles in our freezer, and it can be kept with its potent components intact for at least a couple of years. No need to throw it away when we think it is about to become too old, as it can be mixed in with regular milk and fed to any calf at any time.

calves become what they eat…

Calves will start to test out and eat small amounts of whatever solid food that's made avaliable to them, quite early – often within the first week of its life. It is important that this is “safe food for calves”, like low to medium energy concentrates, hay, silage, and fresh grass if possible.

For the first 2 to 3 months a calf's intake of solid food is simply too low to sustain it, so it needs its daily portions of whole milk.

A calf's stomach simply isn't ready to process and extract energy from solid food from day one, so the whole idea behind introducing a young calf to solid food, is that the solids trigger a natural toughening of its stomach and speeds up the conversion into a proper ruminant that can digest and live on solids.

An a week old calf may try to eat sand, dried cow-dung and dirt if it gets access to it. This is normal behavior and simply a sign that the calf needs minerals, and that it also needs something to activate its immune system on early in life. Making suitable mineral-mixes and/or licking stones containing salt and minerals available, will provide the calf with some of what it needs.

Calves soon learn to eat a little bit of silage, hay and straw, and often eat out of their strawbedding. This just means we have to renew the top layer of straw more often.

From around 3 months of age calves no longer need milk, and it is at around this age a calf will be weaned off by the mother-cow. That we still feed them a thin milk-mix for several months longer, has nothing to do with food-value and everything to do with daily care.

Yes, it takes a few minutes twice a day to prepare the mix and feed them, but we then also can add minerals or whatever they may need in addition to the solid food and water, to this milk-mix, and we can check up on them and make sure each individual calf is doing alright. The calves clearly appreciate this “added luxury”, and we have the necessary control with their health and welfare.

a calf's environment…

Calves should not be kept in a sanitized environment, as they need some exposure to the natural local flora of microorganisms in order to develop their immune system and stay healthy. So, cleaning out and washing down calf boxes and enclosures completely before new calves are placed there, will actually do more harm than good.

Calves should always have access to a dry spot they can lay down on, so we renew and/or replace the strawbedding regularly both in the calf boxes and in the shelter in the calf pen. Calves urinate and leave droppings where they are when they feel the needs, so it is up to us to make sure each one has a good-quality bedding at all times.

What we do in practice is to clean and flush out enough of the old dirt to reduce the exposure early on to a moderate level, and then make sure each newborn calf gets a dry and warm strawbed to lay down on and jump around in.

Similar methods are applied in the calf pen shelter, involving mostly mechanical means for cleaning out old bedding and dirt before a new group of small calves are brought in.

Dirty but semi-dry and airy strawbed layers below the surface, generate heat through the natural composting process – which is fine, so we regularly inspect that the surface-layer is clean and dry to walk on and lay down in, and then renew/replace to make sure it stays that way.

care and trust…

Cattle are spirit-dependent animals, which means their health is closely linked to their emotional state. Keeping them in good spirit usually means keeping them in good health, and the other way around.

Small calves are especially spirit-dependent, so spending time caring for them really pays off regarding their health. We humans can't replace a mother-cows care completely, but since these animals are to grow up in our care we should do the best we can if we want healty and well-adapted animals.

A newborn calf may miss its mother for a few days, while the cow may miss its calf for a week or two. In reality this isn't much of a problem for neither the calf nor the cow, as long as the cow knows where her calf is and can observe that it is taken good care of during this time.

Feeding and caring for the calf while the cow is in for milking and can observe what's going on, will make most cows go along with the arrangement without any real complaints. The cow may talk to her calf and it may respond, but apart from that the cow settles with us as go-betweens as long as she's sure her calf is doing alright. I'm serious: cows are both smart and observant, and they instinctively reacts on how we humans treat them and their calves.

Cows also have a faint memory about how they themselves have been treated since they were born and grew up on the farm, and good treatment results in trust. Trust is essential when dealing with these animals, and the building of trust has to start early – on day one. It is almost impossible to play “catch up” later, and expect perfect response from the animal.

What's invested in the “caring and trust-building department” during an animal's first few days, weeks and months, will be returned throughout the animal's entire life – being it a short or a long one.

deadly diseases…

There haven't been any cases of the cattle-diseases humans are afraid of in Norway for I don't know how many decades, and the control is so strict that there's a good chance Norwegian cattle will be protected from them in the future also. All slaughtered animals are checked anyway, so the food chain will be protected no matter what.

What we do have are instances of some of the cattle-diseases where only the animals' lives are at risk, and we are of course on constant alert to catch the signs of any of these diseases in time to save the animal in question.

the short list:

1. Ticks can carry diseases that can kill a cow, so obviously we look for those tiny blood-suckers and signs that an animal has been infected.

   If we see signs of one of the serious infections, we only have maybe a few hours to get hold of a wet that can administer the cure, or the animal will in most cases die.

   Luckily an animal normally becomes immune once exposed to and cured for most of these diseases, and we are fairly sure most of our animals are immune since they are born here and have become immune through their mothers's milk since many generations of animals have been exposed to ticks and the infections they may carry. No guarantee though, and we have had at least two clear cases – that were caught in time, and a couple of “maybe”, during the last ten years.

2. When it comes to conditions like milk fever we call the wet at once if we see the signs. This condition is rare on our farm – maybe one case every 3 years, and we try to reduce the chance that it'll happen even further by trying to pre-start our cows ability to mobilize calcium reserves – for example by slimming her down before calving.

3. Diarrhea can become a deadly condition for a calf, and the cause can be one or more of a large number ranging from environmental conditions, through infections, to that a calf is born with a weakness. Losing a calf in many ways feels worse than losing a cow, so needless to say we watch over our calves the best we know how to, as should be pretty clear from all I have written about raising healthy calves on this page.

One cow, one heifer and two calves have died on our farm over the last ten years, through accidents or acute and untreatable conditions. In some of these cases neither we nor the wet know exactly why they died, only that it wasn't from anything contagious or something that in any way represented a danger for other animals or humans. Anyway, they ended up in another food-chain – not for human consumption.

measuring health…

On a dairy farm one has to constantly measure each cow's contribution to milk production, since that's what a dairy farm is all about. Milk-quality is of course more important than quantity, even though we obviously want both to be as high as possible.

Here again the animal's spirit plays a crucial role, as an animal that feels stressed and generally speaking “has a bad day” tends to reflect this by producing less milk that is of lower quality. Removing stress-factors from the cow's life is easily measured at this “business end”. Of course; few farmers can measure anything but quantity with any degree of accuracy themselves, but one can usually catch larger variations through less accurate tests and by tasting.

We receive lab test results for bulk-milk quality quite often, and every one to two months we send in individ-samples for lab-testing. Over time this gives us a quality record for the herd as a whole and the individual cow's production, and this is pretty much what we base our long term planning on.

quality class “Elite”:

In general we're happy as long as the milk we deliver for processing is well within “Elite” – the highest quality class, which it usually is. This doesn't mean we can relax though, as we have to be on constant look-out for signs that one or more cows may not be able to stay within these pretty strict quality limits over time.

Minor and seemingly unimportant fluctuations from day to day may be signs that a cow is fighting infections, and we have to take notice of this, sort out which cow it is and help her overcome whatever problem she has.

For the uninitiated: cow milk will always contain traces that shows that the cow's immune system is working as it should, and if she has a sucking calf it will pick up on these traces and react positively on them – they'll activate the calf's own immune system. All in all nature's perfect solution to a natural problem.
It is when the level of traces rises to a level that shows that a cow has problems fighting off infections, that we humans see it as a threat to our quality standards for food.

Who's right and who's wrong doesn't really matter, the quality standards are there and our cows have to live up to them. It is our job as farmers to make sure they do, or keep their milk away from the processing and distribution aimed at the food chains we humans rely on.

preventing diseases:

It is always better to prevent than to cure, so our main focus is on reducing exposure to germs that may affect the cow and her milk production negatively. It is impossible, and not desirable, to remove all germs from the cow's environment, so reduction to a level that the animal can handle without getting sick is the key here.

Cleanliness during milking is important, as it is the easiest thing in the world to introduce germs and subsequent infections when the cow's tits are open during milking, and we can't let that happen. Likewise we disinfect the tits immediately once the cow has contributed her milk to the system, as her tits stay open and vulnerable for another 10-15 minutes.

Additionally we rinse the milking-organs – the rubber tubes that get in contact with the cow's tits and udder, thoroughly in near-boiling hot water after each cow in order to avoid cross-infecting animals during milking. The rinsing in water removes any milk-residue from the rubber, and the heat disinfect the contact-surfaces.

curing diseases:

There are basically two ways to cure the most common diseases that affect the cow and the quality of her milk. The first is to introduce antibiotics – which means calling the wet, and the second is to improve the cow's ability to cure herself by strengthening her immune system. We prefer the second approach when at all possible.

E-vitamins has a good effect on a cow's immune system, and feeding her large doses of E-vitamins along with the regular concentrates for a couple of weeks usually heals the cow when the problem is caught early. Small doses of E-vitamins over longer periods when we know the environment is a bit tougher on her, usually works well as a preventive measure.

holding back milk:

If we know, or think, a cow's milk is not of the right quality, we may simply hold back its milk and use it as calf-feed instead. This doesn't mean our calves are fed low quality milk, as any farmer would, or should, know that calves prefer to suck from the tits with the “bad” milk first and not suck on the tits with “good” milk until there's no more “bad” milk left.

So, if the cow has a sucking calf, it'll help her fight off infections simply by sucking her often and thereby keeping her nearly dry. In the process the calf would have strengthened its own immune system, so it's a “win - win” situation created by nature.

Obviously humans and calves don't agree on the definition of what's “good” and “bad” milk, and we see no point in arguing with the experts – the calves, since this means both humans and calves are happy with the product, on their own terms. Who can ask for more?

the calf deserves the best:

I've mentioned earlier that what a cow produces during the first 5 days after calving is also held back and fed to her calf. This milk has unique properties that can improve health in humans, and can be found in various, usually less potent, forms in health-shops and pharmacies.

We think the calf deserves all it can possibly consume of this wonderful stuff, so, apart from having a few sips ourselves if there's enough of it – which there usually is, we reserve it for the calf. Human consumers have to be content with regular, processed, milk products.

Pasteurized and homogenized? … you must be kidding :

I don't think anyone can blame us for not buing milk at the grocery, since we always have plenty of the unprocessed stuff stored at low temperatures near by. Thus, we are holding back very small amounts of milk for our own consumption.

Our other locals, the farm cats, don't mind having a sip of milk either, but they prefer it warm – as it comes from the cow. No problem

All in all we hold back between 5 and 10% of our milk production to feed ourselves, our calves and our other locals. Sometimes some of this milk is of what one may consider “low quality”, but it is always richer and of better quality than what you can buy at your local grocery store. It contains all the good, natural, stuff and there are no artificial additives. We're happy with that.

phasing out:

More chronic medical conditions measured negatively through the milk, means the cow is phased out at the next cross-road. We prefer to keep our cows in production for many years for a number of reasons, but repeated treatments rarely ever pays off.

We don't push our cows for high production, as high-production cows are more prone to diseases than those in the more moderate range. Thus, “moderate” it is, and this means our cows have a fair chance to stay on the farm a few years longer than what may be considered normal on an average farm.

A cow may produce high-quality milk for many, many, years, but, of course, at some point the effects of old age will kick in and weaken her. We haven't had any really old cows on our farm – a cow can live to the age of over 20 years, but some have stayed here for 7 to 10 years – compared with the average 4 years for dairy cows in our country.

finally…

Farming is ultimately about making a profit, and one day an animal must leave the farm in order for us to make one. Bulls and heifers may be sold to other farms where they'll spend their lives, while older animals are phased out based on individual criteria.

Since the end for a dairy cow is in a slaughter house, her general health matters to the very end. She'll end up on numerous dinner-tables, and quality control is, and has to be, strict in this industry. Food is a major ingredient in human lives, and we want to provide those who include meat in their diet with the very best.

Our cows have left the farm in healthy condition, because it made sense that they had to give up their space on our limited pastures to new generations. Such is life, and we believe they all had a good one on our small farm.

sincerely 

Hageland 08.jul.2008
last rev: 08.aug.2008