Introducing Britannia, a new type of calf milk, formulated to be closer to natural whole milk.
LifeStart science indicates that there are benefits to be gained in modern dairy herds from having higher energy levels and lower osmolality in milk replacers.
These benefits include animals exhibiting optimal development, higher resilience to disease and more longevity of life.
Patriot, included in Britannia, is a package of ingredients to support calf health and performance. Patriot includes a MOS and a live yeast. These additives help to bond to pathogens in the gastro-intestinal track and scavenge oxygen in the large intestine, allowing beneficial microflora to proliferate.
Recent studies (Soberon et al., 2017) have shown that the mammary glands of dairy calves are responsive to nutrient intake during the pre-weaning stage, especially the parenchyma tissue, which will develop into secretory cells in later life.
Studies completed in 2015 (Ballou et al.) showed how calves that have been fed higher levels of nutrition pre-weaning, have increased resistance when challenged with enteric pathogens one month after weaning, compared to those fed traditionally lower levels!
Van Amburgh et al. (2013) indicated that for every kilogram of pre-weaning ADG (average daily gain), first lactation milk increased by 1550 Kg.
Britannia Energized Milk Replacer features many innovations to separate it from other calf milk replacers:
Feeding Britannia to calves in their very early life yields many benefits:
Key to every enterprise that rears animals is the ability to achieve their full lifetime potential for both yield and longevity.
Understanding the role that a calf's early growth and development plays in the lifetime cow performance is one of the most significant advances in calf nutrition in our time. We must move beyond traditional calf rearing and consider the need for investing for optimal performance to give improved profitability on farm.
The concept of early life nutrition and its crucial role in adult health and performance is not new. Having been well established in the human sector, the topic has dominated medical journals over the last few years.
Recently, it has become clear that nutrition and management during the early lives of calves can have long-term effects on the development, health and lactation performance of the herd.
Feed conversion is much higher in the first weeks of life than at any other point in the growth cycle. So kilogram for kilogram the animal gets more benefit in the first two months, than later life. This is one reason why it is beneficial to set high growth targets in the first eight weeks.
The research also shows that calves never make up the shortfall in growth rates and organ development, if fed lower rates, pre-weaning. This pre-weaning phase offers a unique and unrepeatable opportunity to set calves up for life.
Whilst feed costs are higher in the first two months, the benefits to the development and future productivity of the calf more than justify the extra cost, due to higher feed efficiency in early life.
Experts now agree that the management of calves is just as important as that of adult cattle, especially when it comes to improving long term performance. Our unique approach is based on harnessing the benefits of metabolic programming to unlock the genetic potential of cows.
Historically, mammary gland growth has been considered proportionate to the growth of the calf during the first 2 months of life.
However, recent work indicated that the mammary gland might be responsive to nutrient intake pre-weaning, therefore supplying optimal levels of nutrition in early life can support higher mammary gland development and therefore milk yields in later life.
The 'Parenchyma' is the tissue that is responsible for milk secretion within the mammary gland.
There is a critical window of opportunity in early life that offers the potential to support optimal organ development within the calf. The figure below shows the relative increase in organ size against age in days for the heart, liver, lungs and muscle.
The majority of organ development occurs within the first 50 days of life, so the best possible organ development can be achieved by providing calves with optimum nutrients in useable form during this time period. As calves are essentially born 'mono-gastric', liquid nutrition is the most appropriate.
Many farmers have already been convinced of the benefits of calf milk replacer and are successfully feeding a higher plane of nutrition to get the full benefits of a LifeStart program; so why should they change to ECM?
Moving from the traditional practise of restricted feeding to a LifeStart program, means adopting a more progressive feed protocol. The supply of milk or milk replacer therefore needs to be increased. However feeding extra calf milk replacer is only half the story. With ECM we have evaluated the nutrient requirements of the calf to develop a new formulation.
| Traditional Feeding | LifeStart Feeding | |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | 10% BW | 15-20% BW |
| ADG | 400-600g | 700-900g |
Research findings show many current formulations of milk replacers are not optimal for feeding at a higher plane of nutrition level. Calves could be underfed certain nutrients, and overfed others.
Feeding calves a higher plane of quality nutrition will lead to a higher rate of growth. However ECM has specifically been formulated to ensure that the calf receives a balanced nutrient supply to ensure optimal development whilst supporting the health of the calf.
The formula is closer to that of natural milk with 10% more metabolisable energy. The difference in calf performance and appearance should become apparent.
In this study, both treatments had the same level of protein and results showed significant difference in weeks 1 and 9 for faecal scores, when comparing ECM with a traditional CMR.
The graph shows at what level calves reach their nutrient tolerance of lactose. The red line represents a typical high plane of nutrition using a typical calf milk replacer where, especially in early life, there is a risk of exceeding lactose tolerance, leading to nutritional diarrhoea.
For this reason, ECM has been developed with a lower lactose content to reduce the risk of exceeding lactose tolerance.
This parameter measures the concentration of solute particles in a solution and is calculated by adding the concentrations of sugars and minerals in mOsm/Kg of solvent. Lactose content in CMR is the main contributor to the final osmolality value.
CMRs with elevated levels of osmolality can damage gut integrity, increase risk of abomasal bloat (because of slower gastric emptying) and exacerbate diarrhoea severity in sick calves. We have therefore ensured that the osmolality level of ECM is closer to that of whole milk.
300-330 mOsm/Kg
350 mOsm/Kg
400-600 mOsm/Kg
1000 mOsm/Kg
With an osmolality of 350 mOsm/Kg, LifeStart is the closest to the 330 mOsm/Kg in cow's milk.
There are 2.9 MJ of ME in 1L mixed at 135g/L.
Reformulated for elevated planes of nutrition.
Many farmers prefer to use whole milk to feed their calves. Some find it more convenient, others believe it is a more natural product that is best suited to the calf - natures original liquid feed strategy.
Whole milk can be extremely variable. With different potential impacts on health status, performance and convenience. Issues can include:
Energised Calf Milk (ECM) has been developed with whole milk as the biological reference, mixing the best of whole milk with the best of CMR.
Inspired by saleable milk, ECM is high in fat ensuring the calf gets a high level of energy. The balance of vitamins and minerals within the formulation means that the calves get the best possible LifeStart. Farmers should soon see the difference in calf performance, appearance and vigour.
Mortality and morbidity take a surprisingly high toll on some farms due to:
Waste milk carries a risk of microbial contamination from E. coli, bovine viral diarrhoea virus, Listeria monocytogenes and various species of Streptococcus, Salmonella, Mycoplasma, Campylobacter and Staphylococcus, as well as possible transmission of diseases such as Johne's (Selim and Cullor, 1997; Stewart et al., 2005).
Antibiotic traces in waste milk have been shown to contribute to resistance (Langford et al., 2004; Hinton, 1986; Teale et al., 1999; Khachatyran et al., 2006).
The consistency of manufacture of ECM provides a constant unchanging formulation promoting safe feeding every time giving you piece of mind.
For economic and traditional reasons, the use of the variations of whole milk remains widespread on farms. However, as an increasing number of producers evolve towards more modern standards of health and performance they are looking for a constant quality manufactured product providing all of the benefits of whole milk feeding.
ECM allows the farmer to maximise the returns for the business by selling more of the milk produced, rather than using it on farm.
The specialised raw materials for ECM are produced by Trouw Nutrition. The process begins by mixing the fresh dairy products with vegetable oils and fats. This mix is pasteurised then high-pressure homogenised and spay-dried, utilising advanced technology. This results in miniscule fat globules of uniform size, similar to the small fat molecules in cow's milk.
Britannia should be mixed at a concentration of 135 grams per 0.9 litres of water. This will provide 1 litre of reconstituted milk replacer.
This concentration enables the dry matter of the mixed calf milk to closely resemble the dry matter content of cow's milk, whilst also ensuring nutrient and mineral balance is optimised.
Britannia can be easily prepared manually with a bucket and a whisk. For larger amounts it is very convenient to use a milk mixer.
A feeding machine should be set for the right dry matter proportion.
Feed Britannia to your calves at a temperature of 38-40°C.
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