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Dairy farmer says pasteurization research might help

A dairy farmer would like to see more research into feeding pasteurized milk and colostrum to calves.  Ron Brooks from Waupaca, Wisconsin chose not to add pasteurization equipment when the family built a new dairy calf barn.  Brooks tells Brownfield, “I had veterinarians and professors telling us, ‘Oh no, don’t pasteurize’ and I had others saying, ‘You must pasteurize’ and my question to both of them was, ‘If I’m not going to pasteurize the most important meal that calf gets, what’s the point of pasteurizing anything else after that?”

The Brooks Farm has one cow with an abnormally high somatic cell count, and that milk is fed to calves along with the milk of animals being treated.  That makes Brooks wonder if more research is needed on pasteurizing calf milk.  “Are we by chance immunizing these calves at an early age to the pathogens on this farm?  Are they then, when they’re exposed to that pathogen as a lactating animal, do they have a faster immune response?  Is that one of the reasons why we’re able to keep the cell count low?  I don’t know.  I can’t prove it.”

But, it’s a theory Brooks would like to see tested.  “I think it would be interesting research to see if exposing, basically vaccinating, that calf at an early age has any effect on immune response further down the road.”

Brooks Farms milk about 300 Holsteins with a somatic cell count of around 50-thousand.  They use a new double-16 herringbone parlor system, and the calf barn uses robotic feeders.

Ron Brooks and his daughter Zoey Brooks spoke to Brownfield during a Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin ACE Twilight Meeting and farm tour Tuesday.