You might say Sophy Henisz is a calf architect; she builds the framework for newborn calves to launch them into successful careers as herd replacements.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate, who majored in dairy science and Spanish, says her first job was as a maternity consultant for a genetics company. In that role, she learned much about getting calves off to a great start and communicating with those who care for them.
“But the part I didn’t get to see was the result of that effort, beyond the first few days,” she says.
As Source Farm Consultant for Kansas Dairy Development (KDD), a custom heifer-raising enterprise near Deerfield, Kan., she is now privy to the long-term rewards of excellent early life management.
KDD is an ever-growing facility with a current capacity of about 100,000 calves and heifers from about 60 source dairies. Newborn calves travel from as far away as New York and Florida, with many others originating from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Utah, Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee and Missouri.
The facility’s location in southwest Kansas is a calf utopia of sorts. Its arid climate typically supplies moderate temperatures year-around, low precipitation and plenty of natural ventilation. Coupled with ready access to feedstuffs, bedding and labor, it’s a near-ideal location for calf development.
But the calves have to get there. Some of them travel more than 1,000 miles at just a few days old, and it’s Henisz’s job to make sure they are packed and ready for the trip.
“Our goal is to ultimately raise high-quality heifers that are going to be productive herd replacements,” she says. “At the base level, that starts with colostrum.”
Henisz works with source dairies on the finer details of achieving the “4 Q’s” of optimal colostrum feeding:
- Quick — Delivering the first dose within one hour, with a second feeding eight to 10 hours later.
- Quantity — Feeding 6 liters in the first 12 hours of life.
- Quality — A minimum Brix reading of 22%.
- S-Queaky clean — Total bacteria count limits of 1,500 CFU/mL or less and total coliform count of less than 10 CFU/mL.
She also helps source dairies evaluate their maternity housing to ensure calves are born into clean, dry and well-ventilated environments, and she works with KDD staff veterinarian Jared Schenkels to fine-tune their dry-cow vaccination protocols. On her regular visits to source dairies, she provides ATP swabbing services to evaluate the hygiene of colostrum collection and feeding equipment, with a goal of 30 relative light units (RLU) or lower on every swab.
When it comes to shipping, KDD also has protocols for travel readiness. Calves are required to be ambulatory and drinking from a bottle. If they are older than 1 day of age, they receive milk replacer — typically at least 4 quarts — that matches the formulation and total solids content they will receive when they arrive at the KDD facility.
That arrival is a remarkable sight, with a skillful crew standing at the ready when a truck pulls in.
“I’ve timed our crew unloading semis hauling upwards of 200 calves,” Henisz says. “Every calf is unloaded, settled into a well-bedded hutch, and receives a warm bottle of milk replacer within 28 35 minutes.”
In terms of navigating the trip, Henisz actually finds calves fare better when they are shipped on days two to three after birth, compared to those that are held a week or longer at the dairy.
“I think that’s due to a combination of factors,” she says. “For one thing, their immunological barrier from colostrum is stronger. That’s scientifically proven. The rest, I would say, is more behavior-oriented. In their first day or two of life, everything is new. So, one more day of ‘new’ really doesn’t set them back, compared to, let’s say, a week later, when they have established a routine on the dairy.”
Henisz and her colleagues also have noted that many of their healthiest calves are the ones transported the furthest. Recent research performed by Gustavo Schuenemann and his colleagues at Ohio State University confirms that observation.
The retrospective study evaluated nearly 400,000 calves from 15 dairies shipped to two custom-rearing facilities, with an average shipping age of 3.2 days. Overall death loss by weaning for all animals in the study was just 2.49%, and calves transported the longest (24 hours) actually had the second-lowest mortality of 1.55%. The highest mortality rate (3.56%) was in the calves shipped the shortest duration of just 30 minutes.
The calves hauled the farthest went on to achieve comparable average daily gain (ADG) to all calves in the study, and actually had higher ADG than calves that traveled the shortest distance.
“This study ... shows that other health-related factors, such as calf disease, colostrum management, calf type, birth season or year play a much larger role in calf mortality at weaning than transport duration when following well-established, fit-or-transport practices,” Schuenemann concludes.
It is those very practices that lay the foundation for success at KDD, which routinely achieves an overall mortality-at-weaning goal of 3.5% or less.
“When we start with healthy animals, we can keep them that way,” says Henisz.
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