Project update: Bottle teats at birth to weaning

Published:

August 16, 2023

After identifying bottle teats as a significant potential cause of calf loss in the CalfWatch project, the Northern Territory Livestock Industries team photographed some cows shortly after calving with varying degrees of bottle teats, and then took follow up pictures at weaning. Some of these “before and after” photos are shown below.

An observation reported in Bottle teats causing calf loss: An update from CalfWatch was that a noteable number of cows that had bottle teats at calving, had somewhat normal looking udders 3-6 weeks later once the milk supply had been sucked down by the growing calf or the cow had ceased lactation after losing a calf.

If this is consistent with many commercial northern breeder herds where it is impractical to monitor cows during the postpartum period, there is a high chance cows with bottle teats are not being identified to be culled at the next weaning muster. Should the cow with bottle teats have failed to rear a calf but has since reconceived, then some management systems may allow her to remain in the breeding herd and continue to regularly lose calves. In contrast, if the cow has bottle teats but the calf survives, she will likely pass on her udder and teat conformation to her offspring, as it is moderately heritable (udder attachment = 0.2 to 0.3; teat size = 0.5).

This theory suggests herd productivity could be improved by culling harder on breeder teat and udder structure and considering teat and udder structure when selecting replacement heifers.