Colostrum quality is essential for health, performance and growth of beef calves
To prevent Colostrum Deficiency, beef calves need good quality cow colostrum. Generally, “good” colostrum has an IgG concentration ≥50 mg/ mL1,2. The bovine colostrum IgG concentration is often measured, rather than the total bovine colostrum immunoglobulin concentration, since it is most prevalent and easy to measure.
A higher IgG concentration in colostrum leads to a higher concentration of IgG in the serum of calves3. Cattle colostrum containing sufficient levels of bovine colostrum IgG can protect beef calves against pathogens during the critical early weeks of life as it signals maternal antibody transfer.
Because IgG levels in colostrum are easy to measure, it has become an important parameter to measure the quality of cow colostrum. Bovine colostrum is however important for a number of other reasons.
Bovine colostrum is important for beef calves because it contains essential growth factors
Bovine colostrum contains a number of growth factors1,2 that are essential for development of the immune system, for gut integrity and for growth of beef calves (see Figure 1). The two most important growth factors in bovine colostrum are insulin-like growth factors 1 and 2 (IGF-1 and 2) and transforming growth factors alpha and beta (TGF-A and B). These growth factors can only be found in bovine colostrum3. To reach an optimal weaning weight, a beef calf needs the growth factors in bovine colostrum.