Frozen Beastings

Shauny2010 · 17-12-2010 10:01AM #1

I`ve got a pedigree Charli heifer due to calf next week but by the look of her she wouldn't have enough milk to color a cup of tea!!
I asked a dairy man down the road if he had any cows near calving that time so I could get some Beastings, he said he could do one better and went into the house and brought out a gallon of Frozen Beastings. He said that its the same but surly its not, has anyone used this before and is it the same ?

zetorman · 17-12-2010 10:09AM

Frozen is the extact same as the real thing !! Suckler farmers nationwide owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the dairy farmers who freeze surplus beistings, freeze it,store it and then give it away FREE to their neighbours when they need it. Community spirit at its best.

Dozer1 · 17-12-2010 10:12AM

Frozen beastings is a life saver, wouldn't go into a calving season without some in reserve in the freezer. I' ve found it to be every bit as good as the fresh stuff. At at 3am in the morning you'd be glad to have it to keep the life in any calf

snowman707 · 17-12-2010 10:24AM

do not thaw it out in the microwave

give your neighbour a couple of plastic one ltr containers and ask them to fill them

it's easier to have it in small containers and de frost in a bucket of warm water

we fill ice cube packs and freeze them and have them on hand for the lambing

Good luck with the calving etc, !

whelan1 · 17-12-2010 10:46AM

or fill sink with boiling/hot water and leave the container in it to thaw, it doesnt thaw in a few minutes, dont water it down either

vanderbadger · 17-12-2010 11:15AM

Shauny2010 wrote: »

I`ve got a pedigree Charli heifer due to calf next week but by the look of her she wouldn't have enough milk to color a cup of tea!!
I asked a dairy man down the road if he had any cows near calving that time so I could get some Beastings, he said he could do one better and went into the house and brought out a gallon of Frozen Beastings. He said that its the same but surly its not, has anyone used this before and is it the same ?

always keep a few frozen in freezer..

zetorman · 17-12-2010 12:49PM

I heard that one about not using microwave to thaw ..... but we always thaw ours in microwave. SPEED is priority number one if a calf needs biestings. Granted the microwave might kill a few of the goodies but the advantages of the getting a good early feed into the calf outweighs any doubts. Always works for us anyway.

Shauny2010 · 17-12-2010 01:59PM

Thanks for the feedback, you`d think that freezing it would somehow change it but it seems not. I`m going to freeze a few smaller bottles and have them in case.

Bizzum · 17-12-2010 04:42PM

I often used beastings from the microwave, it's slow though, and very difficult to thaw out a gallon drum of it.
Havin said that, its slow no matter how ya do it. Maybe when the heifer is sick to calve, think about getting the show on the road.
A few 1l or even 750ml bottles are woeful handy.
If your lucky you might even benefit from your neighbours vaccination regime and have a few beneficial antibodies kicking about in it!

vanderbadger · 17-12-2010 05:24PM

i generally keep a few of these on hand,
www.farmrite.co.uk/product/106009/Volac-Calf-Volostrum-450g
if a calf is slow to get up and suck then a quick liter of this stuff will give them a good lift and liven them up,its very handy. if I cant get a calf to suck though I will defrost proper beastings

aristo · 17-12-2010 11:04PM

Arc animal health do a great powder colostrum and kickstart powders for weak calves

vanderbadger wrote: »

i generally keep a few of these on hand,
www.farmrite.co.uk/product/106009/Volac-Calf-Volostrum-450g
if a calf is slow to get up and suck then a quick liter of this stuff will give them a good lift and liven them up,its very handy. if I cant get a calf to suck though I will defrost proper beastings

A few drops of vanilla essence on the tongue will get them sucking well too!

BeeDI · 17-12-2010 11:08PM

zetorman wrote: »

I heard that one about not using microwave to thaw ..... but we always thaw ours in microwave. SPEED is priority number one if a calf needs biestings. Granted the microwave might kill a few of the goodies but the advantages of the getting a good early feed into the calf outweighs any doubts. Always works for us anyway.

Id rather wait an extra half an hour to thaw beastings with warm water than zap it with micro waves. Wouldn't dream of putting such a valuable resource into a micro wave oven.

Min · 17-12-2010 11:46PM

I have some in my freezer, always good to have it there as you don't know when it's needed.

bbam · 18-12-2010 12:20AM

BeeDI wrote: »

Id rather wait an extra half an hour to thaw beastings with warm water than zap it with micro waves. Wouldn't dream of putting such a valuable resource into a micro wave oven.

From a bacterial perspective it is more important how it's done... If they're thawed on low and not allowed to overheat there would be no problem using the microwave... Microwaves are just another source of energy, same as a bucket of boiling water..

The problem would be sticking them on full power and boiling/superheating them which essentially steralises the beastings and killing it's goodness..

LostCovey · 18-12-2010 01:09AM

bbam wrote: »

From a bacterial perspective it is more important how it's done... If they're thawed on low and not allowed to overheat there would be no problem using the microwave... Microwaves are just another source of energy, same as a bucket of boiling water..

The problem would be sticking them on full power and boiling/superheating them which essentially steralises the beastings and killing it's goodness..

You know I hate to disagree bbam, but I do.

I agree that microwaves are "just another source of energy, same as a bucket of boiling water", but that is the very point, both the bucket of boiling water and the low-power microwave will denature protein, and destroy antibodies in the beastings. Waste of time.

That is why people in the other postings are talking about putting it into very small containers, so you get a big surface area, and more rapid thawing, because this procedure really should not be done using water much above blood-temperature. In which case it takes AGES.

The food value of an early feed of beastings is pretty much irrelevant to the newborn calf - they will live for days without food, if you ever had a cow calve unknown to you with no milk you would see this. It is the disease protection from an early feed of beastings containing bug-fighting antibodies that is critical, and these are really fragile things. Any fast heating (microwave or hot water) will wreck them and totally undermine all your good work.

Calves or lambs can only absorb these in the first few hours of life, and if it takes all day to thaw frozen beastings properly (and it does) this is a major problem.

Frozen beastings is a poor second to fresh beastings for this reason. Evene the very act of freezing and thawing it does some slight harm, but if you rush the thawing, then you can destroy it totally. Far better to get fresh beastings if you can, but preferably not from a farm with Johnes disease.

LC

bud10 · 18-12-2010 01:14AM

Have used frozen biestings on numerous occasions over the years.

However i will say that the best way i find to defrost is place a 2 litre milk carton(frozen) in a bucket of boiling hot water, leave a couple of hours and they will thaw out perfectly. Has gotten us out of a hole plenty of times!

Thats my tuppence worth!

bbam · 18-12-2010 11:01AM

LostCovey wrote: »

You know I hate to disagree bbam, but I do.

now there's a supprise:eek:

no discussion required

Muckit · 18-12-2010 11:57AM

zetorman wrote: »

Frozen is the extact same as the real thing !! Suckler farmers nationwide owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the dairy farmers who freeze surplus beistings, freeze it,store it and then give it away FREE to their neighbours when they need it. Community spirit at its best.

Here. here. I totally agree. I've often got some from neighbours and no questions asked.

OP, the beastings aren't a miracle cure:rolleyes: Sure it'I get the calf a bit stronger for first day (2X 2litre feeds I think is minimum they recommend to get into calf on first day), but if he doesn't get up and suck himself after that, your fighting a losing battle, especially in the pedigree game.

A cow that can't (and I'm not saying your heifer won't) rear her own calf (and a good calf at that) isn't worth having. You might as well rear them as commercials.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, I know, being there, tried it :rolleyes:

I hope all goes well for you. And remember, to end on a positive note, it's not always the cow/heifer with the bestest looking udder that rears the best calf;)

blue5000 · 18-12-2010 02:26PM

Another thing sheep men could do is inject a cow, either their own cow or a neighbours cow with the 8 in 1 sheep vaccine. It needs to be done a couple of months before calving. Then when the cow calves freeze some of her biestings in 250 ml containers for lambs.

By doing this the lamb would be getting biestings with the sheep disease antibodies. Good point above about johnes disease.

Bizzum · 18-12-2010 04:33PM

Can IBR and BVD be spread or introduced via colostrum?
I think both can be detected in milk sampling.
If it is the case we should all (us suckler farmers) be keeping a drop from one or two of our own cows that produce plenty of milk, and wont kick you death giving up a sup.

LostCovey · 19-12-2010 05:15PM

Bizzum wrote: »

Can IBR and BVD be spread or introduced via colostrum?
I think both can be detected in milk sampling.
If it is the case we should all (us suckler farmers) be keeping a drop from one or two of our own cows that produce plenty of milk, and wont kick you death giving up a sup.

BVD definitely could, IBR - not so sure.

I use frozen beastings all the time, I was only making the point that it is only 80 or 90% as good as fresh stuff, and very tricky to defrost without damaging its disease-preventiing properties. The simple way to check is to ask your vet to take a blood sample and send it off for a maternal antibody check - very cheap.

LC

Feargal as Luimneach · 19-12-2010 05:56PM

Lost Covey is correct. Thawing by microwave or by thawing by excessive heat (boiling water) will denature the immunoglobulins. The immunoglobulins are the important part of colostrum. The nutritional part of colostrum is very much less important.

BeeDI · 19-12-2010 06:31PM

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

Lost Covey is correct. Thawing by microwave or by thawing by excessive heat (boiling water) will denature the immunoglobulins. The immunoglobulins are the important part of colostrum. The nutritional part of colostrum is very much less important.

LC is always right.:D

whelan1 · 19-12-2010 06:37PM

BeeDI wrote: »

LC is always right.:D

i don't agree with that:rolleyes:

snowman707 · 19-12-2010 07:56PM

BeeDI wrote: »

LC is always right.:D

no body is always right, but from what I've read of his/her posts, he/she seems to have more on the ground experience than a lot of the posters on here

agcons · 19-12-2010 08:35PM

Ideally because every farm is different you should save beistings from your own cows as they carry the immunity for whatever problems exist on your farm. A lot easier said than done with a suckler herd. Most important point is to get something warm into the calf in the early hours to get it going and suckling away itself otherwise you re into a big uphill battle

whelan1 · 19-12-2010 08:50PM

most annoying thing is when you give someone your last frozen biestings and then have none for your own

BeeDI · 19-12-2010 09:03PM

whelan1 wrote: »

most annoying thing is when you give someone your last frozen biestings and then have none for your own

Bet you wouldn't give them your last Rolo though.:)

bbam · 19-12-2010 09:16PM

On occasion we've used the powdered stuff, it's expensive but when you're stuck..:rolleyes: It seemed to work fine.. Always have a tub along with some electrolite just in case..
With sucklers it's a pain to find a cow that can be hand milked easily enough to have beastings to freeze..

LostCovey · 19-12-2010 09:27PM

whelan1 wrote: »

i don't agree with that:rolleyes:

Whelan1, For once in our lives we 100% totally absolutely agree on SOMETHING!!!!!!

I'm not always right.

But I always think I am.

LC

reilig · 19-12-2010 09:40PM

We'd normally keep a couple of 2 litre bottles milked from our own cows in the freezer. Its very useful to have. I'd always thaw it in warm water rather than the microwave (or boiled water) but I can understand why some people would want to have it thawed very fast. Its vital that you get a small drop into the calf as soon as possible after calving and normall a heifer that has a very small bag of milk will have a couple of mouthfulls for a calf. Its also vital that the calf sucks the heifer after calving in order to make her come to her milk faster.

But back to the vitals of getting the beastings or colostrum in fast. If the calf goes beyond 8 hours without getting it, there is a very high risk that you will lose him - 50ml is enough to keep him going. At 6 hours, the calf starts to deteriorate. The gut starts to stick together, he is starting to get weaker and his chances of survival are lower. Even if you do get it into him at 6 hours, his gut may be slightly damaged and he could be prone to suffering to severe scours later in life.
So therefore its vital that you get it too him as quickly as possible for the sake of both the fluids and the antibodies. Anyone that tells you different is lacking practical experience.

Frozen Beastings

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