“The colostrum quality is at its highest just after calving,” Nicolien explains. “The cow starts producing a lot of milk. This dilution effect causes the colostrum quality to drop, simply because the antibodies remain the same but the cow produces more litres of milk. The concentration of antibodies per litre of colostrum therefore drops.”
Colostrum quality 25% lower after a night
“The colostrum quality decreases by 3% every hour due to the dilution effect,” Nicolien knows. “If a cow calves at 11 p.m. and you milk her at 7 a.m. in the morning, the colostrum quality has already decreased by 25%. In addition, the calf can also absorb fewer antibodies.” That is why Nicolien advocates milking the cow as soon as possible, but in any case within two hours after calving, and giving the colostrum directly to the calf.
Also view the tips for maintaining the quality of the colostrum here.