Serhii Phil, AVM consultant

In recent years, Ukrainian milk producres received considerable portion of information on modern technologies of milk production. In various regions of Ukraine there were conferences and seminars held. training and educational tours to the leaders in milk production in Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East were organized. However, surprisingly, still most of the farms have not adopted modern world elaborated technology of milk production. Why? Probably there are many reasons, objective and subjective. We do not aim to analyze them, and want the readers just to pay attention to one of the most critical moments - replacement calves growing. It is here where some make mistakes, others try to save money not realizing that the end result justifies the costs. Still, we all understand that properly grown calves give at least 10,000 milk yield per cow.

Where to start? Of course, with colostrum. During the first hour after birth, the calf must get quality colostrum (10% of the weight of animals) through the probe. We suggest that at each MTF there a bank of high quality colostrum is established. The quality of collected colostrum is checked with the colostrometer. The first forced feeding with colostrum is implemented to form the passive immune system.This helps more newborn calves to survive.

To control the quality of the first feeding, we need a refractometer. Procedure is carried out on the fifth day since birth, thus we take this blood of calves and determine the protein content of serum.

See full version in Milk and Farm Journal, № 3, December, 2010.