Spiking colostrum replacement powder directly into maternal colostrum II: Impacts on behavior and well-being of neonatal dairy calves

Mixing unreconstituted (dry) colostrum replacer (CR) powder directly into maternal colostrum (MC) prior to feeding could be problematic if the final mixture has an excessively high osmo­lality, resulting in a decreased abomasal emptying rate. A pos­sibly safer alternative may be to first reconstitute CR powder in water according to label directions, prior to feeding with MC, though this would result in having to deliver a larger volume. Our objective was to describe the effect of first reconstituting CR with water before feeding with MC, as compared to spik­ing unreconstituted CR powder directly into MC, on measures of calf wellbeing and appetite. We hypothesized that neither a larger volume nor an increase in osmolality of a CR-MC mixture would result in changes to calf behavior or appetite during or following colostrum feeding.