Dr Shiela McGuirk lists the 5 C's of successful calf rearing as Colostrum, Calories, Cleanliness, Consistency and Comfort. One C that is the easiest to overlook is cleanliness; breakdowns in cleanliness usually occur not from any ill intention but from a failure to see the breech in hygiene.

Some common examples follow:

• Colostrum and milk fed to calves becomes heavily contaminated with bacteria from manure because the person milking the cow doesn't prep the cow's udder properly. Even if you are stripping colostrum out by hand, you need to prep the udder as if you were going to milk the cow into the tank. When colostrum is contaminated, you are essentially force-feeding manure to calves when you give them colostrum.

• Colostrum and milk isn't stored properly so it becomes further contaminated with bacteria, giving bacteria already in the milk or colostrum a chance to grow. Containers for storing milk and colostrum should be cleaned as described below. Colostrum and milk should be stored in a refrigerator especially in the summer when there is a good chance it would otherwise be exposed to flies and when high temperature leads to bacteria overgrowth.

• Bottles and pails used to feed calves are not properly cleaned and sanitized. Some bacteria, like Salmonella, can stick to surfaces making them very difficult to remove. Scrubbing with a brush is usually the only effective way of cleaning. It helps to start out with a surface that is easy to clean. This is why steel pails have an advantage over plastic.

• To follow the proper sequence for cleaning feeding equipment, first rinse in warm but not hot water, followed by carefully washing with a chlorinated cleaner in hot water. Then rinse with a warm acid sanitizer solution. After washing set the bottle or pail to dry without rinsing the sanitize off. The water for the first rinse should be warm, not hot, because milk protein will stick to the bottle or pail if the water is too hot... so a hot rinse will just make it harder to wash the protein off. The rinse is necessary to remove the organic matter that could neutralize the chlorine in the wash. Wash water should be hot (over 120 F) to keep dirt and the fat in the milk of colostrum dissolved.

• Feeding equipment can become re-contaminated after cleaning. Letting the acid rinse dry on the pail or bottle rather than rinsing it off makes it harder for bacteria to grow back.

• Nipples and other rubber materials must be replaced when they wear. Cracks and fissures in nipples are difficult or impossible to clean, but they hide bacteria the same wha that cracked inflation do. Replace nipples when they develop cracks.

If too many calves are getting sick, look carefully for ways to increase cleanliness. Rracticing good sanitation doesn’t usually increase the amount of work on a dairy farm. It can actually reduce it, because it reduces the time needed to treat sick calves.