Dairy calves need good passive immunity

For dairy heifer calves to have a healthy start in life and go on to have good lactation, they need to have a strong passive immunity system. This basically means that calves must receive their mother’s colostrum as soon as possible after birth to kickstart the building of a strong immune system. The neonatal immune system at birth is naïve to the wide variety and types of pathogens present in the environment. Consumption of colostrum to provide circulating Immunoglobulin G (IgG) prior to th