ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY OF DAIRY CATTLE THROUGH EARLY LIFE NUTRITION AND MANAGEMENT

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0232199
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2012
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2015
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853

Performing Department
Animal Science

Non Technical Summary
Dairy producers are under increasing pressure to improve the productive efficiency of lactating dairy cattle through management, genetics and the use of technology. The demand for milk is increasing in NY and the Northeast due to the significant growth of the yogurt industry (Kaplan, NY Times, 2012). Improvement in genetic capacity for milk production has been enhanced in recent years with the availability and use of genomic analyses and the ability to analyze both males and females for single nucleotide polymorphisms (Boichard et al. 2012), which if implemented appropriately allows for accelerated genetic improvement in milk yield. However, even if future milk yield is increased through enhanced genetic tools, approximately double current levels up to approximately 400 lb per lactation, and assuming not every dairy will adopt the technology for maximum benefit, other strategies to increase milk production require further investigation. We recently published a paper (Soberon et al. 2012) describing the effect of early life nutrient intake on long-term productivity of dairy cattle. In that paper, for every pound of average daily gain prior to weaning, milk production as an adult increased over 1,000 lbs in the first lactation, currently at least five times the average increase due to genetic enhancement. This data demonstrates that pre-weaning nutrition and management have a significant influence on the productivity of dairy cattle through environmental effects on the expression of genetic capacity for milk yield. Further, recent work on colostrum suggests components of colostrum can impact feed efficiency from 26 percent to 50 percent prior to weaning and alter appetite by up to 7 percent in post-weaned calves, thus enhancing their productive efficiency. The components of colostrum responsible for the increased effects on productivity require elucidation and the work on early life nutrition would benefit from additional data to further understand the role of farm and environment on the long-term outcome of increased milk yield. Finally, since the suggested management changes required to achieve the desired outcomes are up to 3 years away from a financial payback, tools that allow producers to estimate the return on investment are necessary for proper economic decision making. Thus, one purpose of the project is to further describe factors provided by the cow through colostrum that might enhance growth and productive efficiency of the animal throughout life. Further, we will link that data to currently available information describing the role of pre-weaning nutrition on long-term productivity of calves and the economic consequences of increasing the nutrition and management of neo-natal calves with long-term economic returns. The othe purpose of the project is to develop a field usable decision making tool for dairy producers and their advisors that will allow them to evaluate their current calf and heifer management strategies against alternatives and predict the economic consequences of the alternatives.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
301	3410	1010	25%
302	3410	1010	25%
305	3410	1010	25%
307	3410	1010	25%

Knowledge Area
302 - Nutrient Utilization in Animals; 305 - Animal Physiological Processes; 307 - Animal Management Systems; 301 - Reproductive Performance of Animals;

Subject Of Investigation
3410 - Dairy cattle, live animal;

Field Of Science
1010 - Nutrition and metabolism;

Keywords

calves

nutrition

insulin

leptin

colostrum

productivity

economic decision making

neonatal programming

Goals / Objectives
There are two primary objectives of this research project. First, to understand the role of specific hormones, insulin and leptin provided at birth on feed intake, feed efficiency, nutrient absorption and growth rate of pre-weaned and early post-weaned calves. The second objective is to develop an economic decision making tool to characterize the economic impact of the effects of colostrum and early life nutrition that can be used by dairy producers and their advisor's in making management changes. Expected outcomes of this study are: 1. New data describing the role of colostrum and colostrum components on feed efficiency and productivity of calves. 2. Potentially new product development through enhancements to colostrum and colostrum replacers with increased levels of various growth factors that alter metabolism or intake. 3.Enhanced data describing the role of early life nutrition on long-term productivity and the economic impact of that among various herds and environmental conditions. 4. The ability to forward predict the economic outcome and return on investment of early life management decisions on long-term productivity of dairy animals.

Project Methods
The study will evaluate the lactocrine effect of two hormones found in colostrum, insulin and leptin, on the potential impact on the calf. The measurable outcomes of the calf study will be feed intake, changes in growth rate and feed efficiency. In the first experiment, 12 calves per treatment will be fed colostrum based colostrum replacer and the treatment calves will be fed colostrum replacer supplemented with 1,000 IU of human insulin in the first two hours of life and then feed intake and growth rate will be measured weekly on all calves. All calves will receive a 28% CP, 15% fat milk replacer at 13.5% solids for 5 days from a bottle and then be acclimated to automated feeding units (Delaval, model CF1000+; Forster-Technik GmbH), fed at defined levels by week and will achieve ad-libitum intake by 21 days of age. At four days of age, calves will be fed their normal diet and gavaged with 5 grams of xylose and fed only 6 L of milk replacer to ensure that xylose absorption is not confounded by variable, individual ad-libitum calf intakes. Xylose uptake is an indicator for glucose absorption and post xylose dosing, blood samples will be taken every 30 minutes for 4 hours to determine if there were differences in xylose absorption based on treatment. In the second experiment, 12 calves per treatment will be allocated to identical treatments, with the addition of one treatment (Four treatments). In this experiment, the additional hormone will be leptin. Leptin is found in first day milk at a concentration of approximately 30 ng/ml. For a positive control pooled colostrum from cows at the research farm will be fed to one set of treatment calves. Another treatment will receive colostrum replacer. The third treatment will receive colostrum replacer plus leptin at 60 ng/ml and the forth treatment will be the colostrum replacer and a combination of leptin (60 ng/ml) and 1,000 U insulin. We believe the insulin/leptin combination might be important for both energy sensing, and also leptin uptake. Since it appears that insulin is enhancing glucose uptake, we are considering that insulin might also enhance uptake of other components of colostrum. Plasma and colostrum replacer leptin levels in blood plasma will be measured as described by Ehrhardt et al. (2000). Plasma and colostrum replacer insulin will be determined by a double antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA) as described by McGuire et al. (1995). Xylose will be measured using the K-xylose kit from Megazyme, Inc, Wicklow, Ireland. Feed intake will be measured by the autofeeders, body weights will be recorded weekly and feed effiency will be calculated and analyzed. For the second objective, economic models have been developed but they require refinement to forward predict the quality of the heifer and what the increased management and feed inputs should result in to appropriately quantify the cost of replacements. The economic model will be developed in a spreadsheet that will be validated with actual production data and costs and then further developed in a software environment that allows producers to conduct their own evaluation of their calf and heifer management system.

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for most of this work are the professionals working in the dairy industry that help dairy producers make quantitative decisions about calf and heifer management on dairy farms. During this study, we learned that components from colostrum other than immunoglobulins were responsible for how calves utilized nutrients and how supplementation of some of these components could be used to enhance growth and health of calves. This information was presented at national meetings, regional and local extension meetings and at conferences around the U.S. and Europe. Further, the information was also shared with undergraduates in our Animal Science courses. A spreadsheet model was also constructed that incorporated decision making for growth, reproduction, herd size, heifer inventory and cost of rearing replacements and that tool has been demonstrated to dairy producers in the Northeast U.S. and also to industry professionals for their use in the field. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided for the partial training of two graduate students. The first graduate student has been working on the effects of colostrum components on growth and nutrient metabolism and was also responsible for the development of the data set that evaluated early life management and long-term productivity. The student has presented her findings at many extension meetings around the state and has been invited to other meetings around the country to discuss her work. The second student was responsible for the development of the spreadsheet model and some funds from the project were used to help develop the data needed for the model and also to interact with some other professionals in the industry that had expertise in this area. This student also presented his data at several meetings around the NY State. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To date, a thesis was been written by the student that developed the spreadsheet model and the objective is to continue to edit the thesis so that it can be published in a journal such as the Journal of Dairy Science. That is the leading dairy journal in the world, so that will provide good coverage. The work of both students has been presented at regional extension meetings and also at national scientific meeting in the U.S., and around the world, especially the data on the colostrum components. There have been at least 20 presentations at a national and internationallevel discussing the outcome of the colostrum work and the early life productivity data. On a more local basis, the extension meetings have been focused more on producers and some industry professionals and have been for groups as small as 8-10 people and as large as 200 participants. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? For objective 1,we were able to demonstrate that the hormones and growth factors in colostrum are responsible for the uptake of nutrients such as glucose, from the gastrointestinal tract of the calf and that the amount of insulin that is present in colostrum is important for nutrient absorption. There are many hormones and growth factors in colostrum that are important to the calf, especially within the first 12 hrs of life and for the first 3 to 4 days of life. We generated data that demonstrates enhanced uptake of nutrients in calves fed a colostrum extract and that this increase in nutrient intake was responsible for 50% increase in growth rate in calves fed similar amounts of nutrients. Part of the effect is due to an increase in nutrient availability and part of the response is due to a change in efficiency of use of absorbed nutrients. For objective 2, we partnered with a company that already had separated out the whey fraction of colostrum and then helped them identify how to further condense the low-molecular weight components (hormones and growth factors)of the colostrum to enhance products for the industry. For objective 3, we generated another smaller data set to evaluate what factors are most important for lifetime milk yield, herd life and productivity in dairy calves and cattle. The data set was generated from about 16 farms where the students were able to gather information on the performance of the calves and then use that information to evaluate the productivity of those calves based on their pre-weaning performance. We were again able to associate early life performance with first lactation milk yield and in this data set, there was approximately 900 pounds more milk yield as an adult for every one pound of average daily gain prior to weaning. For objective 4, we developed a new spreadsheet model that integrates many aspects of calf and heifer decision making to allow producers to make more informed decisions about the true cost of raising replacement animals. Using this model, the user can see how any or all inputs impact the long term internal herd growth, breakeven cull day, and the number of days until payoff. Trying to minimize the number of days until payoff while maximizing the number of productive days past payoff should be the goal of every dairy farm and the model is designed to allow producers to evaluate this situation. This type of model does not currently exist in the industry or if it does, it is not used at this point. If it seems likely a cow will not payfor herself, changing management toreach the breakeven cull day should be the goal. With these concepts in mind, the model was developed to quantify the days until payoff, the breakeven cull day, and the impact that sexed and beef semen has on herd growth. The model relies on the following inputs and descriptions: Milking Herd Inputs, Semen Inputs (sexed semen or traditional semen), Heifer Inputs, which include early life performance, Payoff Calc., Herd Projection, Herd Projection with Changes, and Summary. Through this model, we were able to demonstrate that in many dairy herds, the date of culling (end of herd life) coincided with the time needed for the heifer to pay herself off demonstrating that the profitability of the animal could be directly related to her cull value. Herds that could manage the replacement program to achieve payoff by 1.6 to 2.1 lactations were much more profitable than herds where the payoff was not achieved until 2.5 to 2.8 lactations since herd life is approximately 2.6 to 2.8 lactations in many NY herds.

Publications

• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Development of a Decision Model for Dairy Herd Replacement Dynamics and Profitability

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: During this reporting period, we disseminated research findings and summaryinformation to dairy producers in New York and the Northeast U.S. through extension meetings and regional discussion groups. Further,similarinformation was shared with the industry professionals in the dairy industry such as nutritionists and pharmaceutical company representatives through extension meetings and workshops on calves and heifers and dairy profitability. Finally information on our findings and activities was shared with undergraduates in the Dairy and Animal Science program at Cornell University. so the data was used to help teach undergraduate students. The information shared with students was primarily through classroom activities and experiential learning activities as part of our undergraduate dairy training program. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This work has provided for the training and professional development of one undergraduate student and one graduate student. Both students gained experience conducting field based and research to understand how various management activities and decisions affected the performance and profitability of calves and heifers. The students gained experience in scientific methods, statistics, data management and analysis and collaboration. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Yes, the results have been disseminated to dairy producers, industry professionals and undergraduate students at Cornell University. The dissemination of this work has been communicated through extension meetings, discussion and focus groups, workshops and the classroom. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We are continuing to do research in collaboration with a supplier of colostrum derivatives and further enhance and develop our decision making tool. One graduate student is initiating a calf study using various components of colostrum to look at changes in metabolism and growth while the other graduate student is further developing the decision making tool using the existing information on calf and heifer management and some recently published data on management of neonates and heifers and long-term productivity.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have continued to develop both data and experiments that are allowing us to fully understand the effect of colostrum components on growth, feed efficiency and productivity of calves. This work has led to further studies with a company that produces colostrum derivatives and we are currentlyevaluating multiple formulations of these components to better understand which components are most important and cost effective to supply. So this further meets the objectives of the project and outcomes 1 and 2. These experiments will provide new data to meet outcome 3. To fulfill outcome 4, we are working on a decision tool that will allow the user to make economic and management decisions about individual and groups of calves and heifers. The tool accounts for the amount of lactation milk yield that is affected by various management decisions and interventions and then integrates that information with genetic data to allow the user to better understand the potential of the animal for long-term productivity. This information is then integrated with the economic values of the calves and heifers to predict their long-term profitability.

Publications

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: The target audiences have been diverse. A company that produces a colostrum product has reformulated the product and relabeled it to give it at birth instead of later growth to sick calves. This has had a big impact on the company and also the industry as dairy producers begin to understand the role that colostrum plays in growth and development. Also, we were invited to present some of our findings at the American Dairy Science Association Annual meeting in Indianapolis, IN this past summer to a very diverse group of scientists. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A current veterinary student with interest in calves conducted the calf study involving colostrum replacer and hormones. This was an excellent opportunity for this student to gain research experience and also provide valuable data to meet our goals and objectives. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? We have not finalized the results and have nothing to report about this study yet. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We plan to finish analyzing the data we generated in this study and then incorporate our findings into our economic and management decision making tool.Further we plan to meet (the PI and co-PI's) to work on developing the management decision making tool.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We developed new data describing the role of colostrum and colostrum components on calf growth, feed efficiency and health. Further, we helped a company further develop their colostrum product for application to calves on dairy farms. The product was reformulated and relabelled to be applied to calves at birth. The data was developed on 30 calves that were provided a commercially available colostrum replacer as a control and then the same colostrum replacer with leptin and insulin supplemented at 2 to 5 times physiological levels to determine if 1) the hormones are absorbed at that stage of development and 2) do they have any impact on feed intake, feed efficiencyand metabolism. We are still analyzing the growth and blood data, so we will report on that in the next period.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: M. E. Van Amburgh, H. M. Hammon, and F. Soberon. 2013. The role of colostrum components on neonatal development and growth with emphasis on the calf. J. Dairy Sci. 96: E suppl. 1. : 405.