Full article at: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(20)30078-3/fulltext

I first want to add that this article has an immense amount of information reviewed within it. It is staggering what we currently understand and perhaps more concerning that it represents so little. Again, I wanted to state that this review is less about providing you actionable points to implement today, though some will exist in this discussion, but instead meant to facilitate discussion about the proper way to handle economic and production based reductions that today’s dairy economy demands.

Ultimate Message: The current state of the dairy economy involves cost reductions and productions. Many of the proposed methods for this involve focusing on dry cows and the dry cow ration for savings or banking of cows for later. I am concerned about the long term impacts of such changes on our current and future production animals. At the very least we need to consider and be prepared for a generation of dairy neonates that will require significantly more attention throughout their first years of life.

Late-gestation maternal factors affecting the health and development of dairy calves

Published by Angel Abuelo

Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, MSU

Objective: Discuss the effects of maternal stress during late gestation on the offspring’s growth, productivity, metabolism, and health. In addition, strategies focusing on maternal interventions that improve neonatal health will be reviewed.

Location:  Veterinary School, Michigan State University

Methods: Efficient production of heifers is fundamental to the productivity and sustainability of dairy farms. However, high preweaning morbidity and mortality rates are frequently reported worldwide, imposing substantial welfare and economic implications. A major contributing factor to disease susceptibility in the neonatal stage is the inability of calves to mount an effective immune response. Appreciation is now greater that exposure in utero to several stresses (nutritional, social, metabolic, and so on) during the last stages of pregnancy have downstream carryover effects in calves' health, growth, and development. Suboptimal intrauterine conditions during critical periods of development lead to changes in tissue structure and function that may have long-term consequences on the offspring's physiology and disease susceptibility. Indeed, preweaning metabolic function and growth are associated with future milk production. Thus, late-gestation carryover effects span into the lactating stage of the heifers. Nevertheless, researchers have been studying how to minimize these effects.

Outcomes: This review will discuss the effects of maternal stress during late gestation on the offspring's growth, productivity, metabolism, and health. In addition, strategies focusing on maternal interventions that improve neonatal health will be discussed. A better understanding of the intrauterine conditions affecting calf health and growth may facilitate the design of management practices that could improve neonatal development and future cow productivity.