WEBVTT 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:15.060 Breaking free from the chains of the past Where 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:18.820 truth moves faster than a Holstein calf No law 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.660 waiting on some printed page We're charting new 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:25.300 ground in the digital age From genomic codes 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:29.120 to robot facts We cut through the noise, no hold 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.460 them back not your daddy's dairy news tonight 00:00:32.460 --> 00:01:03.530 we're sparking Welcome back to the Bullvine Podcast, 00:01:03.890 --> 00:01:05.890 where we cut through the dairy industry noise 00:01:05.890 --> 00:01:08.189 to get you the insights that actually matter 00:01:08.189 --> 00:01:10.269 for your operation. We aren't here to sell you 00:01:10.269 --> 00:01:13.430 products. We're here to make sure you're still 00:01:13.430 --> 00:01:16.670 in business 10 years from now. And today we are 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:19.609 diving deep into a feature piece that hits on 00:01:19.609 --> 00:01:21.590 something I think every single producer listening 00:01:21.590 --> 00:01:24.670 has screamed about at least once. We're talking 00:01:24.670 --> 00:01:27.349 about the weaning dip. Oh, the universal headache. 00:01:27.430 --> 00:01:29.670 It really is. You have these... calves and for 00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:32.129 six or seven weeks they look absolutely fantastic 00:01:32.129 --> 00:01:34.909 they're bouncing off the walls their coats are 00:01:34.909 --> 00:01:38.390 shining like new pennies and they are just hammering 00:01:38.390 --> 00:01:40.750 their milk allowance you think to yourself i 00:01:40.750 --> 00:01:43.750 finally cracked the code i am a genius calf raiser 00:01:43.750 --> 00:01:46.250 i've been there you feel like a rock star and 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:48.379 then When you start the transition, you pull 00:01:48.379 --> 00:01:50.480 the trigger on weaning and it's just like someone 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:52.459 let the air out of the tires. Exactly. It is 00:01:52.459 --> 00:01:54.840 that frustrating period where intake just drops, 00:01:55.019 --> 00:01:57.840 the ears start to droop, respiratory issues spike, 00:01:57.939 --> 00:02:00.079 and you spend the next three weeks basically 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:03.719 playing nurse. You go from genius to firefighter 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:06.829 in about 48 hours. It's the classic two steps 00:02:06.829 --> 00:02:09.349 forward, one step back scenario, or, you know, 00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:11.569 sometimes two steps back and a vet bill. And 00:02:11.569 --> 00:02:13.870 for the longest time, the narrative in the industry, 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:15.870 and I've been guilty of saying this myself, is 00:02:15.870 --> 00:02:17.930 that this is just the cost of doing business. 00:02:18.310 --> 00:02:21.409 You know, calves are fragile creatures. Weaning 00:02:21.409 --> 00:02:24.770 is a stressful event. Biology is hard. You just, 00:02:24.789 --> 00:02:26.909 you budget for the treatments, you expect the 00:02:26.909 --> 00:02:28.710 slump, and you just power through it. Right. 00:02:29.129 --> 00:02:31.949 It's viewed as bad luck or just inevitable, like 00:02:31.949 --> 00:02:34.780 rain during hay season. Yeah. We're looking at 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:37.319 a stack of research today, including some heavy 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:39.539 hitter work from Dr. Michael Steele's group up 00:02:39.539 --> 00:02:42.400 at the University of Gulf, and some really comprehensive 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:44.900 data on engineering gut health that suggests 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:47.979 we have been looking at this all wrong. And frankly, 00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:50.180 the hook for today's deep dive is a little uncomfortable. 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.039 I always get nervous when you say uncomfortable. 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:54.199 What are we looking at? The data suggests that 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:57.139 the weaning dip isn't bad luck. It isn't even 00:02:57.139 --> 00:03:00.180 inevitable. It is actually a reflection of decisions 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:03.500 made weeks earlier in a weird way. The weaning 00:03:03.500 --> 00:03:05.960 dip is something we are engineering. Whoa, okay. 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:08.800 That is a heavy accusation to start the show 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.120 with. You're telling me that when I walk into 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:14.080 the barn and see a calf with a snotty nose and 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:17.460 scours right after weaning, I did that? Not intentionally, 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:19.759 obviously. No one wakes up and wants to get calf 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:23.599 pneumonia. But the system did it. The protocol 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.300 did it. And we really need to unpack this because 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:29.020 the stakes are way, way higher than just a vet 00:03:29.020 --> 00:03:31.090 bill today. Well, let's set the stage on those 00:03:31.090 --> 00:03:33.870 stakes because right now margins are tight. Everyone 00:03:33.870 --> 00:03:36.009 listening knows that feed costs are up. Labor 00:03:36.009 --> 00:03:40.050 is. It's impossible to find. So when we talk 00:03:40.050 --> 00:03:42.129 about a calf stalling out, usually the farmer 00:03:42.129 --> 00:03:44.210 is thinking about the immediate cost, the medicine, 00:03:44.349 --> 00:03:47.310 the time, the loss of game for that month. But 00:03:47.310 --> 00:03:49.129 looking at these notes, you're saying the hole 00:03:49.129 --> 00:03:51.069 in the bucket is bigger than that. Much bigger. 00:03:51.449 --> 00:03:53.110 This is where we had to look at the long term 00:03:53.110 --> 00:03:55.110 data. There's this fascinating research from 00:03:55.110 --> 00:03:57.240 Dr. Michael Steele's group. combined with work 00:03:57.240 --> 00:03:59.639 by Svensson and Holtgren, and they tracked these 00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:02.199 animals long -term. And they documented that 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:04.740 a calf experiencing diarrhea in that first month 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:09.020 of life produces roughly 350 kilograms less milk 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:11.180 in her first lactation. Hold on. Let me just 00:04:11.180 --> 00:04:15.539 pause there. 350 kilograms. That is, what, roughly 00:04:15.539 --> 00:04:18.699 770 pounds of milk? Gone. Vaporized. Yeah. Before 00:04:18.699 --> 00:04:20.680 she even enters the parlor. Just because she 00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:23.019 had scours as a baby. Exactly. And that is not 00:04:23.019 --> 00:04:25.560 a rounding error. That is profit. If you multiply 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:28.420 that across a herd, say you have a 20 % scour 00:04:28.420 --> 00:04:31.279 rate, the numbers get, yeah, they get terrifying. 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:34.740 And that's just diarrhea. Dr. Alex Bach in Spain 00:04:34.740 --> 00:04:37.100 found that heifers treated for respiratory disease 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:39.879 before weaning have significantly higher odds 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:42.500 of dying or being cold before they even reach 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:44.620 their first calving. We're talking survival rates 00:04:44.620 --> 00:04:47.339 running 10 to 20 percentage points lower. So 00:04:47.339 --> 00:04:50.139 the calf recovers. She looks fine. She joins 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:53.250 the herd. But the damage is already done. The 00:04:53.250 --> 00:04:55.810 immune insult reverberates. It literally changes 00:04:55.810 --> 00:04:58.430 her metabolism. There's a recent study that showed 00:04:58.430 --> 00:05:01.009 suboptimal nutrition and health events in that 00:05:01.009 --> 00:05:03.910 pre -weaning phase. Create metabolic differences 00:05:03.910 --> 00:05:05.910 that you can still see in her glucose metabolism 00:05:05.910 --> 00:05:08.930 when she's a lactating cow. Essentially, you 00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:11.470 are programming her genetics to be less efficient. 00:05:11.829 --> 00:05:14.050 That is the part that is so hard to wrap your 00:05:14.050 --> 00:05:16.379 head around. Because the treatment costs, you 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:18.600 know, the bottle of antibiotics or the electrolytes, 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:20.319 that's visible. I see that on the bill this month. 00:05:20.420 --> 00:05:24.079 But the 770 pounds of milk I don't get two years 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:27.139 from now, that's invisible money. It's what economists 00:05:27.139 --> 00:05:30.759 call the implementation gap. It is so hard to 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:33.579 convince a producer to spend a dollar today to 00:05:33.579 --> 00:05:36.720 save $5 in two years. It's just human nature 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:39.610 to optimize for what we can see right now. But 00:05:39.610 --> 00:05:41.490 what we're going to discuss today is that least 00:05:41.490 --> 00:05:44.350 cost thinking in the calf barn might be the most 00:05:44.350 --> 00:05:46.689 expensive decision on the farm. OK, so let's 00:05:46.689 --> 00:05:49.310 get into the how. If we are engineering this 00:05:49.310 --> 00:05:52.290 crash, how are we doing it? What's the mechanism? 00:05:52.370 --> 00:05:55.050 Because I feed my calves well. I use good replacer. 00:05:55.149 --> 00:05:58.250 I use good starter. Where is the disconnect? 00:05:58.589 --> 00:06:00.930 We have to start with biology and we have to 00:06:00.930 --> 00:06:03.110 stop thinking of a calf as a small cow. Well, 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:04.990 it has four legs and moves. It looks like a cow. 00:06:05.129 --> 00:06:08.740 It does. But for the first five weeks. biologically 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:11.660 speaking, it is not a ruminant. It is essentially 00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:13.720 a monogastric animal. It's more like a pig or 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:17.379 a human baby than a cow. The rumen is just a 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:19.839 collapsed bag. It's doing nothing. The esophageal 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:22.360 groove shunts the milk right past it. The small 00:06:22.360 --> 00:06:24.100 intestine is doing all the heavy lifting. Okay, 00:06:24.139 --> 00:06:25.759 so weeks one through five, we're running on a 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.360 single stomach system. Correct. And here's the 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:30.339 kicker that I think most people just gloss over. 00:06:30.899 --> 00:06:34.420 The enzyme system is immature. You have pancreatic 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:36.699 proteases, the enzymes that break down protein. 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:40.000 And at birth, they are operating at a tiny fraction 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.199 of their adult capacity. They mature really slowly 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:45.139 over those first three to four weeks. So the 00:06:45.139 --> 00:06:47.980 machinery to digest food is basically, it's under 00:06:47.980 --> 00:06:50.379 construction. Exactly. And that machinery is 00:06:50.379 --> 00:06:52.779 built to a very specific blueprint. It is designed 00:06:52.779 --> 00:06:55.860 by nature to digest milk proteins, casein, whey. 00:06:56.439 --> 00:06:59.199 That is what the enzymes recognize. That is the 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:01.540 lock for the key. I sense a but coming on here. 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:05.540 But milk protein is expensive. Whey powder markets 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:09.540 fluctuate. Skim milk powder is pricey. So what 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:12.459 do we do in the industry to cut costs on milk 00:07:12.459 --> 00:07:14.939 replacer? We substitute. We use plant proteins. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:17.879 Soybean meal, wheat gluten, hydrolyzed wheat 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:20.540 protein. We look at the tag, we see 20 % crude 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:22.459 protein, and we think, great, protein is protein. 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:24.639 Right, the crude protein number on the tag matches. 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:27.259 The math works. My nutritionist says it meets 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:29.879 the specs. The math works on the tag. The math 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:31.920 does not work in the gut. Because that immature 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.139 enzyme system looks at that soy protein and says, 00:07:34.220 --> 00:07:37.110 aye. I don't know what to do with this. There 00:07:37.110 --> 00:07:40.170 was a study by Antio that compared nitrogen digestibility. 00:07:40.470 --> 00:07:43.370 It showed this massive gap. The all -milk formulas 00:07:43.370 --> 00:07:46.410 were digested almost completely. The plant -supplemented 00:07:46.410 --> 00:07:49.430 formulas, not so much. So where does that undigested 00:07:49.430 --> 00:07:52.250 plant protein go? I mean, it doesn't just disappear. 00:07:52.569 --> 00:07:54.490 It passes through the small intestine and dumps 00:07:54.490 --> 00:07:57.000 into the hindgut. And that is a disaster. Because 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:58.720 now you have this high -quality protein sitting 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:00.959 in the hindgut, and it becomes a buffet for the 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:03.319 wrong bacteria. It ferments. It feeds pathogens 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:05.660 like clostridium and E. coli. So the bad bugs 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:08.899 throw a party. A huge party. And it's not just 00:08:08.899 --> 00:08:12.199 the bacteria. Soy protein specifically contains 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.379 these antinutritional factors, glycinin and beta 00:08:15.379 --> 00:08:18.000 -conglycin. These actually cause an allergic 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.959 reaction in the gut lining. It flattens the villi. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:23.660 Those are the little finger -like things that 00:08:23.660 --> 00:08:26.509 absorb nutrients. Yes. They provide the surface 00:08:26.509 --> 00:08:28.829 area. If you flatten them, you lose absorption 00:08:28.829 --> 00:08:31.670 capacity. So you save pennies on the replacer 00:08:31.670 --> 00:08:34.850 by using plant protein, but you trigger gut inflammation, 00:08:35.250 --> 00:08:38.289 villi blunting, and potentially scours. Because 00:08:38.289 --> 00:08:39.830 the system literally couldn't handle the fuel 00:08:39.830 --> 00:08:42.009 you put in it. That is a classic case of looking 00:08:42.009 --> 00:08:44.629 at the spreadsheet and missing the biology. We 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:46.690 are trying to force a square peg into a round 00:08:46.690 --> 00:08:48.870 hole because the square peg is five cents cheaper. 00:08:49.029 --> 00:08:51.509 And we pay for it with that 350 kilograms of 00:08:51.509 --> 00:08:53.649 lost milk later, but we don't connect the dots. 00:08:53.669 --> 00:08:55.570 We just think, oh, that calf has a sensitive 00:08:55.570 --> 00:08:58.669 stomach. No, she has a damaged stomach. Okay, 00:08:58.710 --> 00:09:01.230 so that's the monogastric phase. Don't cheap 00:09:01.230 --> 00:09:04.549 out on the protein source. Got it. But then we 00:09:04.549 --> 00:09:07.879 hit the transition. Weeks five to eight. We are 00:09:07.879 --> 00:09:10.799 trying to turn this animal into a ruminant. We 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.820 are introducing grain, starter, maybe some hay. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.340 This is where the wheels usually fall off for 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:18.740 me. This is why the intake stalls. This is the 00:09:18.740 --> 00:09:21.279 danger zone. The ruminant is transforming from 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:23.860 that collapsed bag into a fermentation chamber. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:26.639 And this brings us to what I think is the most 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.279 fascinating part of the research notes. Substrate 00:09:30.279 --> 00:09:33.490 specificity? Substrate specificity? That sounds 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:35.250 like something I'd need a PhD to understand. 00:09:35.330 --> 00:09:37.429 Break that down for us regular folks. It's actually 00:09:37.429 --> 00:09:39.289 pretty simple, but it's absolutely critical. 00:09:39.549 --> 00:09:41.950 Think of the rumen bacteria as workers in a factory. 00:09:42.450 --> 00:09:44.570 But they aren't generalists. They're specialists. 00:09:44.909 --> 00:09:46.769 Some guys know how to weld. Some guys know how 00:09:46.769 --> 00:09:48.970 to do electrical. In the rumen, some bacteria 00:09:48.970 --> 00:09:52.210 digest starch. Some digest fiber. Some digest 00:09:52.210 --> 00:09:54.409 sugars. Okay, so you have a specialized workforce. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:56.799 Right, and Dr. Phil Cardoso at the University 00:09:56.799 --> 00:09:58.980 of Illinois has done great work on this. The 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:02.480 bacteria have specific enzymatic machinery for 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.740 specific foods. Now imagine you run a factory 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:08.019 that builds cars. You have an assembly line, 00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:09.940 you have sheet metal guys, you have engine guys. 00:10:10.259 --> 00:10:13.279 Suddenly, without warning, the supply truck shows 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.299 up and... dumps a load of bicycle parts on the 00:10:16.299 --> 00:10:18.279 floor. The factory stops. The factory shuts down. 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.460 The car builders look at the bicycle chains and 00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:23.100 handlebars and say, we can't use this. You have 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:25.279 to fire the car builders and hire bicycle builders. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:28.929 That takes time. In the rumen, that is what happens 00:10:28.929 --> 00:10:31.629 when we change ingredients. The bacterial community 00:10:31.629 --> 00:10:34.769 has to reorganize. It creates a lag. So this 00:10:34.769 --> 00:10:37.190 is about consistency. It is entirely about consistency. 00:10:37.230 --> 00:10:39.009 And I'm not just talking about feeding grain. 00:10:39.110 --> 00:10:41.230 I'm talking about the specific ingredients in 00:10:41.230 --> 00:10:43.090 that grain. Give me an example. Because usually 00:10:43.090 --> 00:10:45.169 a pellet is a pellet, right? I buy a specific 00:10:45.169 --> 00:10:47.710 starter. It looks the same every week. To the 00:10:47.710 --> 00:10:50.190 human eye, yes. But let's look at the research 00:10:50.190 --> 00:10:52.549 by Paul Menani. They looked at something as simple 00:10:52.549 --> 00:10:56.220 as molasses. To a farmer, molasses is just the 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:58.440 sticky stuff that makes the feed taste good and 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:01.440 keeps the dust down. But they compared cane molasses 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:03.639 versus beet molasses. I wouldn't have thought 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:05.320 there was a difference. I mean, sugar is sugar. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.399 Huge difference. Cane molasses is about 50 % 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:11.139 sucrose, but it also has high levels of glucose 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:13.919 and fructose. Beet molasses is higher in sucrose, 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:17.240 about 61%, but it has almost zero glucose and 00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:19.659 fructose. Okay, so different sugar profiles. 00:11:19.899 --> 00:11:22.679 Why does the bug care? to a bacteria that is 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:24.899 a completely different fuel source it's like 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:27.039 switching from diesel to gasoline you switch 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:29.019 from cane to beat because the mill got a deal 00:11:29.019 --> 00:11:31.679 on molasses that week the bacteria that were 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.559 thriving on glucose starve the community crashes 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:37.460 digestion stops the calf stops growing this is 00:11:37.460 --> 00:11:40.059 the least cost trap the least cost trap this 00:11:40.059 --> 00:11:42.220 is where the feed mill computer says hey Beet 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:44.100 molasses is cheaper this week. Let's swap it 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:47.299 out. The tag still says molasses. The protein 00:11:47.299 --> 00:11:49.580 level is the same. The energy calculation is 00:11:49.580 --> 00:11:52.179 the same. But the biology inside the calf goes 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:55.799 haywire. Exactly. We prioritize the consistent 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:58.919 nutrient profile on the paper, the label. But 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:01.179 we ignore the consistent ingredient profile the 00:12:01.179 --> 00:12:03.740 bacteria need. And when that bacterial population 00:12:03.740 --> 00:12:06.909 is unstable, you get... erratic production of 00:12:06.909 --> 00:12:11.029 volatile fatty acids, or VFAs, specifically butyrate. 00:12:11.210 --> 00:12:14.269 And butyrate is key, right. It is vital. VFAs 00:12:14.269 --> 00:12:16.149 are the chemical signal that tells the rumen 00:12:16.149 --> 00:12:19.450 papillae to grow. So erratic feed equals erratic 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:21.590 gut development. You get short papillae, poor 00:12:21.590 --> 00:12:23.889 absorption, and a calf that just can't handle 00:12:23.889 --> 00:12:26.429 weaning. So the solution is fixed formulations. 00:12:26.730 --> 00:12:29.029 Telling the mill, I want this specific recipe 00:12:29.029 --> 00:12:31.350 and don't change it even if the price of corn 00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:34.350 gluten moves. Yes. Fixed formulations. But... 00:12:34.669 --> 00:12:36.210 That comes with the price tag. I was going to 00:12:36.210 --> 00:12:37.929 say, the mill isn't going to like that. And they 00:12:37.929 --> 00:12:40.070 are going to charge me for the privilege. They 00:12:40.070 --> 00:12:42.250 make their money on the spread, buying whatever 00:12:42.250 --> 00:12:44.809 byproduct is cheap that week. The industry estimate 00:12:44.809 --> 00:12:48.450 is a premium of about 2 % to 4%. So we are talking 00:12:48.450 --> 00:12:52.639 maybe $8 to $12 per calf. over the rearing period. 00:12:52.860 --> 00:12:54.960 $12 a calf. If I'm raising a thousand calves, 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:57.159 that's $12 ,000 straight off the bottom line. 00:12:57.240 --> 00:12:59.659 That is a real number. That's a new piece of 00:12:59.659 --> 00:13:02.059 equipment. That's labor. I can hear the listeners 00:13:02.059 --> 00:13:04.559 right now tightening their wallets. It is. And 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:07.159 that is where the debate happens. Is that $12 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:10.519 worth it? If you ask a least cost economist, 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:13.960 they might say no. But if you ask the biologist 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:17.259 who knows about that 770 pounds of lost milk, 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:20.480 or the vet who is treating the respiratory cases 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:23.320 because the calf's immune system crashed during 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:26.059 the feed switch, the answer is absolutely yes. 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:28.299 It's the difference between price and cost. The 00:13:28.299 --> 00:13:30.320 price of the feed is higher. The cost of the 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:32.639 calf might be lower. Precisely. And we see this 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.240 in the field. Operations that run fixed formulations 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:38.570 generally report much steadier intakes. You don't 00:13:38.570 --> 00:13:40.309 see those days where the calves just stare at 00:13:40.309 --> 00:13:42.450 the bucket. They keep eating because the factory 00:13:42.450 --> 00:13:45.429 never has to shut down to retool. Okay, so we 00:13:45.429 --> 00:13:47.429 have fixed the ingredients. We're spending the 00:13:47.429 --> 00:13:50.210 extra $12. We are taking a hit on the wallet 00:13:50.210 --> 00:13:52.149 for the sake of the gut. Now let's talk about 00:13:52.149 --> 00:13:55.950 the additives because everyone loves a good additive. 00:13:56.629 --> 00:13:59.029 Probiotics are the rage right now. I feel like 00:13:59.029 --> 00:14:01.250 every salesperson that drives up the lane has 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:03.409 a magic powder that fixes everything. A fairy 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:06.000 dust approach. Right. But the source material 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.299 here points at a huge implementation gap with 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:11.860 probiotics. It says we're basically throwing 00:14:11.860 --> 00:14:14.519 money away. We're doing it lazily. We're treating 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:17.059 the calf like a bucket. Just throw the bugs in. 00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:19.179 But remember the two phases we talked about. 00:14:19.259 --> 00:14:21.480 The monogastric phase and the ruminant phase. 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:23.539 Different environments. Totally different climates. 00:14:23.620 --> 00:14:26.360 The small intestine, where the milk goes, is 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:29.730 microerobic. It has some oxygen. So if you want 00:14:29.730 --> 00:14:31.330 a probiotic to work there, you need bugs that 00:14:31.330 --> 00:14:34.409 like oxygen, bacillus, lactobacillus. These are 00:14:34.409 --> 00:14:36.769 facultative anaerobes. They can handle air. Okay, 00:14:36.850 --> 00:14:39.590 that makes sense. But the rumen, the rumen is 00:14:39.590 --> 00:14:42.029 an anaerobic fermentation chamber. Oxygen is 00:14:42.029 --> 00:14:44.669 toxic there. It needs bugs like megasfera or 00:14:44.669 --> 00:14:47.309 butyrovibrio. So if I take a probiotic designed 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:49.490 for the gut and dump it into the starter feed 00:14:49.490 --> 00:14:52.129 for the rumen... It's useless. It might even 00:14:52.129 --> 00:14:55.250 be dead before it gets there. Dr. Mike Fly from 00:14:55.250 --> 00:14:57.950 the USDA has this perfect analogy. He says using 00:14:57.950 --> 00:15:01.049 the same probiotic blend for both is like planting 00:15:01.049 --> 00:15:03.629 the same crops in two completely different climates. 00:15:04.389 --> 00:15:07.429 You can plant a cactus in a rainforest, but don't 00:15:07.429 --> 00:15:09.590 expect it to thrive. That is a great analogy. 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:12.029 But I bet if I walked into a feed room right 00:15:12.029 --> 00:15:14.210 now, I'd see the same white powder being mixed 00:15:14.210 --> 00:15:17.309 into the milk and top dressed on the grain. 100%. 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:20.309 And then the farmer says probiotics don't work. 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:22.889 No, they don't work if you put the wrong bug 00:15:22.889 --> 00:15:25.490 in the wrong place. We need stage -matched programs. 00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:28.210 There are companies doing this. Kalmbach Feeds 00:15:28.210 --> 00:15:30.649 has a system with Lifeguard for milk and Optifirm 00:15:30.649 --> 00:15:33.149 XL for starter. But you have to look for it. 00:15:33.169 --> 00:15:35.129 You have to ask the rep, is this bug designed 00:15:35.129 --> 00:15:37.850 for where I am putting it? But again, this costs 00:15:37.850 --> 00:15:40.889 money. A stage -matched program is more inventory, 00:15:41.149 --> 00:15:43.750 more management, maybe a higher price point. 00:15:43.809 --> 00:15:45.750 I'm playing devil's advocate here. Is it worth 00:15:45.750 --> 00:15:48.250 the hassle? It is a fair question. And here is 00:15:48.250 --> 00:15:51.009 the honest truth. If you have a perfect calf 00:15:51.009 --> 00:15:57.090 program with 0 % mortality and 1 % scours, you 00:15:57.090 --> 00:15:59.690 probably won't see a huge ROI from this. Because 00:15:59.690 --> 00:16:02.049 you're already winning. Right. If your baseline 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:05.509 is excellent, the marginal gain is small. But 00:16:05.509 --> 00:16:07.429 if you are fighting scours, if you are seeing 00:16:07.429 --> 00:16:10.549 that dip, you have variation, this is a tool 00:16:10.549 --> 00:16:12.509 that actually targets the mechanism of the problem. 00:16:12.590 --> 00:16:15.090 It's not just hope. It's engineering. I want 00:16:15.090 --> 00:16:16.590 to pivot to something that the source material 00:16:16.590 --> 00:16:20.669 calls... The free lunch. Because so far, let's 00:16:20.669 --> 00:16:23.289 be honest, we have spent money. We spent money 00:16:23.289 --> 00:16:25.470 on all milk protein. We spent money on fixed 00:16:25.470 --> 00:16:27.789 formulations. We spent money on fancy probiotics. 00:16:28.029 --> 00:16:31.210 My checkbook is bleeding. But there is one thing 00:16:31.210 --> 00:16:33.389 here that costs zero dollars, and yet it might 00:16:33.389 --> 00:16:35.350 be the hardest thing for farmers to actually 00:16:35.350 --> 00:16:37.509 do. The stress calendar. The stress calendar. 00:16:37.870 --> 00:16:39.470 This sounds like something my therapist would 00:16:39.470 --> 00:16:41.309 recommend. It effectively is therapy for the 00:16:41.309 --> 00:16:43.629 calf. It's based on research by Dr. Jeff Carroll 00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:46.009 at the USDA. It's all about cortisol. The stress 00:16:46.009 --> 00:16:49.269 hormone. Right. We know that weaning raises cortisol. 00:16:49.529 --> 00:16:51.850 That is unavoidable. You're taking away the milk. 00:16:51.950 --> 00:16:54.610 You're often moving the calf, changing the diet. 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:57.610 Cortisol goes up for three to five days. When 00:16:57.610 --> 00:16:59.870 cortisol is up, the immune system is suppressed. 00:17:00.110 --> 00:17:02.909 That's just biology. Okay, manageable. Three 00:17:02.909 --> 00:17:04.849 to five days, we can handle that. Manageable, 00:17:04.869 --> 00:17:06.990 if that was the only thing happening. Wow. But 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:09.230 what do we do in the real world? Well, I can 00:17:09.230 --> 00:17:11.980 tell you what we do. The crew is there. The calves 00:17:11.980 --> 00:17:14.359 are locked up. So we think, hey, while we're 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:16.819 moving them, let's vaccinate them. And let's 00:17:16.819 --> 00:17:19.359 dehorn them. And maybe let's brand them or tag 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:22.500 them. We stack the jobs. It's efficient. It saves 00:17:22.500 --> 00:17:25.359 me labor. It is efficient for the humans. It 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:28.160 is catastrophic for the calf. Why? Because the 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:31.579 stress isn't additive. It's multiplicative. If 00:17:31.579 --> 00:17:33.460 you stack weaning, dehorning, and vaccination, 00:17:33.779 --> 00:17:36.299 you don't just get stress level three. You get 00:17:36.299 --> 00:17:38.359 a cortisol spike that lasts for two weeks or 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.480 more. You are hammering the immune system into 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:42.740 the ground right when the calf is most vulnerable. 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:45.859 So we are creating a two -week window where that 00:17:45.859 --> 00:17:48.720 calf has basically zero defenses, and then we 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:51.319 wonder why she gets pneumonia. Exactly. We are 00:17:51.319 --> 00:17:54.539 prioritizing our labor efficiency over her physiological 00:17:54.539 --> 00:17:58.079 reality. The free lunch is simply unstacking 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:00.339 those events. So walk us through the proposed 00:18:00.339 --> 00:18:02.279 calendar. If I want to do this right, what does 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:04.140 the schedule look like? Because I need to know 00:18:04.140 --> 00:18:06.480 if this is even feasible. Okay, let's work backward 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:09.380 from weaning. First, disbudding or dehorning. 00:18:09.700 --> 00:18:12.440 Do that four to five weeks before weaning. That 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:14.059 feels early for some people. You're doing that 00:18:14.059 --> 00:18:16.079 on milk? It gets it out of the way. The gaffer 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.740 covers. Cortisol returns to baseline long before 00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:22.619 the next stressor. Then, weaning. Make it a standalone 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:25.539 event. Just wean. Don't move them that day if 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:27.220 you can avoid it. Certainly don't jab them with 00:18:27.220 --> 00:18:29.960 anything. Do a gradual step down over five to 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:32.339 seven days or even 10 to 14 days if you can. 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:35.119 OK, so she's weaned. She's stressed, but she's 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:37.920 handling it. When do we vaccinate? Because usually 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:40.680 we vaccinate at weaning to protect them. That 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:43.819 is the mistake. Wait, wait seven to 14 days post 00:18:43.819 --> 00:18:47.039 weaning. Let that cortisol spike settle. Let 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:49.859 her immune system come back online so she can 00:18:49.859 --> 00:18:52.930 actually respond to the vaccine. If you vaccinate 00:18:52.930 --> 00:18:55.769 a stressed calf, you are often wasting the vaccine 00:18:55.769 --> 00:18:58.509 anyway because the immune system is too suppressed 00:18:58.509 --> 00:19:00.950 to build a titer. That's a great point. We pay 00:19:00.950 --> 00:19:02.809 for the vaccine, but if the calf is stressed, 00:19:02.950 --> 00:19:05.630 we might as well be injecting water. Precisely. 00:19:05.690 --> 00:19:08.609 And then finally, regrouping or moving pens. 00:19:08.970 --> 00:19:12.289 Do that two weeks post weaning. So we are spreading 00:19:12.289 --> 00:19:14.569 this out over six weeks instead of one afternoon. 00:19:14.690 --> 00:19:17.730 Yes. And I know what you are thinking. I can 00:19:17.730 --> 00:19:20.029 hear the Northeast farmer screaming at his radio 00:19:20.029 --> 00:19:21.869 right now. I don't have the time. I don't have 00:19:21.869 --> 00:19:24.630 the people. It's the reality of labor shortages. 00:19:25.109 --> 00:19:27.549 Stacking is a survival mechanism for the farmer. 00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:29.710 I can't catch these heifers four separate times. 00:19:29.930 --> 00:19:31.990 It is a valid complaint, but we have to acknowledge 00:19:31.990 --> 00:19:34.529 the cost. There was a producer in Minnesota mentioned 00:19:34.529 --> 00:19:36.789 in the source material. He did the bullet and 00:19:36.789 --> 00:19:39.549 implemented the spacing. He saw a one -third 00:19:39.549 --> 00:19:41.849 drop in post -weaning respiratory treatment. 00:19:42.029 --> 00:19:46.089 One -third. 33%. 33 % reduction. Just by changing 00:19:46.089 --> 00:19:48.630 the calendar. So yes, it takes more labor to 00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:51.430 catch the lung multiple times. But how much labor 00:19:51.430 --> 00:19:54.069 did he save by not treating sick calves for three 00:19:54.069 --> 00:19:56.690 weeks? How much money did he save on antibiotics? 00:19:57.529 --> 00:19:59.970 And how much more milk will those heifers give 00:19:59.970 --> 00:20:02.869 in two years? That is the trade -off. It's busy 00:20:02.869 --> 00:20:06.450 work versus productive work. Treating sick calves 00:20:06.450 --> 00:20:09.009 is the worst kind of work. It's demoralizing, 00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:11.430 it's expensive, and it means you failed somewhere 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:13.970 upstream. Exactly. So if you can't do the full 00:20:13.970 --> 00:20:16.599 spread, Do some spread. Just don't dehorn and 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:18.720 wean on the same day. That's the cardinal sin. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:20.740 I want to zoom out a bit. We've covered the biology, 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:24.500 the feed, the schedule, but implementing this, 00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:27.740 it's overwhelming. If I go home and try to change 00:20:27.740 --> 00:20:30.160 my protein source, my probiotic, and my schedule 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.039 all on Monday, my team is going to quit, and 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:34.880 my calves might actually do worse because of 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:37.759 the chaos. That is a huge risk. The systems approach 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:40.220 sounds great in a deep dive, but on the farm, 00:20:40.339 --> 00:20:42.599 chaos is the enemy. The recommendation here is 00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:45.019 a phased implementation. Do not change everything 00:20:45.019 --> 00:20:47.359 at once. So what's the roadmap? Give me the steps. 00:20:47.700 --> 00:20:49.980 Months one and two, just measure. Establish a 00:20:49.980 --> 00:20:51.779 baseline. You can't fix what you don't track. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:53.859 Lock in your ingredient specs with the mill. 00:20:54.019 --> 00:20:56.920 Stop the variation. That's step one. Stabilize 00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:59.160 the factory. Right. Months three and four, optimize 00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:01.660 the milk. Maybe look at that all milk protein 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:03.579 if you aren't using it. Get the growth happening. 00:21:03.940 --> 00:21:07.480 Months five and six, the stress calendar. Start 00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:10.599 moving the dates around. Then month seven plus. 00:21:11.180 --> 00:21:13.180 That's when you layer in the fancy probiotics. 00:21:13.220 --> 00:21:15.519 Why wait on the probiotics? Because if you put 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:17.880 expensive probiotics on top of an unstable diet, 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:20.180 you are wasting your money. You can't supplement 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:22.920 your way out of bad management. Fix the substrate 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:26.460 first, then add the bugs. That is crucial advice. 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:29.299 Don't ice a cake that hasn't finished baking. 00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:32.059 And here's the contrarian take. And this is important 00:21:32.059 --> 00:21:34.799 because we value honesty here. This approach 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:37.099 isn't for everyone. Who shouldn't do this? If 00:21:37.099 --> 00:21:39.700 you are selling calves. If you are selling bull 00:21:39.700 --> 00:21:43.019 calves or selling weaned heifers, you are not 00:21:43.019 --> 00:21:45.700 the one capturing that 350 kilograms of milk 00:21:45.700 --> 00:21:49.559 in two years. The next guy is. So purely economically, 00:21:50.019 --> 00:21:51.940 does it make sense for you to spend 12 extra 00:21:51.940 --> 00:21:55.319 dollars on feed and extra labor? Probably not. 00:21:55.859 --> 00:21:58.140 The market doesn't pay you enough premium for 00:21:58.140 --> 00:22:02.680 a gut -optimized calf. hard truth of the market. 00:22:02.779 --> 00:22:04.799 Unless you have a buyer who knows the data and 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:07.400 pays for it, you're donating that margin to the 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:10.200 next guy. Which is rare. Also, if you have bad 00:22:10.200 --> 00:22:12.740 basics, there's a great quote from Dr. Paul Rapnicki 00:22:12.740 --> 00:22:15.099 says, the fancy stuff doesn't fix the fundamentals. 00:22:15.940 --> 00:22:18.319 If you have dirty water, wet bedding, and bad 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:21.339 ventilation, buying a stage -matched probiotic 00:22:21.339 --> 00:22:23.319 is like putting a spoiler on a rusted out car. 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:25.460 It looks cool, but the engine is still dead. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:28.539 Fix the water. Fix the bedding. Then worry about 00:22:28.539 --> 00:22:30.779 the enzyme maturation rates. And there is the 00:22:30.779 --> 00:22:32.819 cash flow reality. We have to be sensitive to 00:22:32.819 --> 00:22:34.839 that. We are talking about an ROI that takes 00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:39.160 18 to 24 months. Cash flow is king. If you are 00:22:39.160 --> 00:22:42.420 on the brink and that extra $12 per calf breaks 00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:44.839 the bank today, you won't be in business in two 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:47.539 years to collect the extra milk. So this strategy 00:22:47.539 --> 00:22:49.859 requires a business that is stable enough to 00:22:49.859 --> 00:22:52.180 float the investment. It's a luxury of stability 00:22:52.180 --> 00:22:54.519 to be able to optimize for the future. But for 00:22:54.519 --> 00:22:56.980 those who can, the payoff is massive. It is. 00:22:57.019 --> 00:22:59.099 It's the difference between surviving and thriving. 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:00.640 All right, let's bring this down to the ground. 00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:03.220 I'm a farmer. I'm driving to the feed store right 00:23:03.220 --> 00:23:05.019 now. I've listened to you dissect this for the 00:23:05.019 --> 00:23:07.500 last hour. What do I actually do? Give me the 00:23:07.500 --> 00:23:09.700 actionable insights. I need three things. Okay, 00:23:09.799 --> 00:23:12.039 let's break it down. Immediate, medium, and long 00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:14.299 term. Start with this week. What can I do today 00:23:14.299 --> 00:23:18.190 that costs nothing? Immediate. The stress calendar. 00:23:18.430 --> 00:23:20.910 Go look at your schedule. Stop stacking events. 00:23:21.150 --> 00:23:24.109 Even if you just separate one thing, do not dehorn 00:23:24.109 --> 00:23:26.849 and wean in the same week. It costs you nothing 00:23:26.849 --> 00:23:30.109 but planning. Just do it. Done. That's an easy 00:23:30.109 --> 00:23:32.869 win. What about the next few months? Medium term. 00:23:33.049 --> 00:23:35.829 Yeah. The substrate audit. Talk to your nutritionist. 00:23:35.869 --> 00:23:38.730 Ask the hard question. Are we on a least cost 00:23:38.730 --> 00:23:41.769 formulation that changes every week? Ask what 00:23:41.769 --> 00:23:45.259 the cost would be for a fixed formulation. Is 00:23:45.259 --> 00:23:48.380 it $8? Is it $12? Compare that to your treatment 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:50.839 costs. Think about the factory workers in the 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:52.599 room and retooling every time the truck shows 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:55.440 up. And long -term. Long -term. Data. Data tracking. 00:23:55.460 --> 00:23:57.640 You have to link early health to lactation data. 00:23:57.819 --> 00:24:00.960 You cannot manage the weaning dip impact on milk 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.519 yield if you don't know which heifers had scours 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:06.099 two years ago. Most farms have the records, but 00:24:06.099 --> 00:24:08.319 they aren't connected. The calf software doesn't 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:11.099 talk to the cow software. Connect them. See if 00:24:11.099 --> 00:24:12.880 your sick calves are becoming your low -production 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:15.400 cows. The data will tell you if the investment 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:18.039 is worth it. It's closing the loop, moving from 00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:19.839 guessing to knowing. Exactly. You know, what 00:24:19.839 --> 00:24:21.740 strikes me about this whole conversation is that 00:24:21.740 --> 00:24:23.579 it puts the power back in the farmer's hands. 00:24:23.779 --> 00:24:26.500 The weaning dip feels like bad luck. It feels 00:24:26.500 --> 00:24:28.920 like, ah, it's just that time of year. But looking 00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:31.039 at it as an engineering problem, as a series 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:33.559 of decisions, that's actually empowering. It 00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:35.880 means you can fix it. It's not the weather. It's 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:37.880 the protocol. And sure, it might cost a little 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:42.069 more up front, but 770 pounds of milk? That's 00:24:42.069 --> 00:24:44.490 a lot of milk to leave on the table. It's a tanker 00:24:44.490 --> 00:24:46.609 load pretty quickly, if you have a decent -sized 00:24:46.609 --> 00:24:48.710 herd. Well, this has been an eye -opener. It's 00:24:48.710 --> 00:24:52.109 dense, but it matters. It does. The calves don't 00:24:52.109 --> 00:24:54.630 care about tradition. They only reflect the system 00:24:54.630 --> 00:24:56.829 you build for them. That's a great line to end 00:24:56.829 --> 00:24:59.089 on. They only reflect the system you build for 00:24:59.089 --> 00:25:01.609 them. Exactly. This has been another Bullvine 00:25:01.609 --> 00:25:04.049 podcast from The Bullvine. For more straight 00:25:04.049 --> 00:25:08.950 -talking industry analysis, head to www .thebullvine 00:25:08.950 --> 00:25:12.390 .com. Subscribe wherever you get podcasts. We're 00:25:12.390 --> 00:25:14.609 out with new episodes every day. And next time. 00:25:14.789 --> 00:25:16.730 Next time we are looking at something that might 00:25:16.730 --> 00:25:18.670 make you rethink your entire bleeding strategy. 00:25:19.289 --> 00:25:21.490 But we'll save that for later. Thanks for listening.