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[–] holofan4life 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Yes. Calves get what's called colostrum from their mothers if allowed to drink from her right after birth.

Factory-raised calves are often separated from their mothers and don't receive the colostrum and subsequently don't develop as good immunization and can get sick from various ailments.

https://www.beefmagazine.com/health/vets-opinion/colostrum-important-in-calf-health-0201

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[–] jonny1313 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

That's not true. Most, if not all, dairy farms will milk the colostrum from the cow and feed it to the calf. A calf without colostrum is a death sentence. Everyone in farming knows that. Not only that, they have colostrum replacer mix made from, ACTUAL COLOSTRUM, on the off chance that they can't get the mother to provide the colostrum. They even list the immunities that the cow had when she was milked for the colostrum.

Dairies don't remove the calves to prevent them from drinking colostrum, the calves will get it later, farmers remove dairy calves from dairy cows because dairy udders are fragile and a calf wrecking its mother's udder means no more milk. When milking time comes they will bring out a separate individual milker for that cow, milk the colostrum, and proceed to feed it to the calf during the feeding schedule that farm goes by.

The article you referenced is from a beef producers site which is an entirely different setup. Beef producers will leave the calf on the mother for around 6-8 months depending on the operation. Udders on beef cattle are immensely different than udders on dairy cattle. Beef cattle in general are much healthier body wise due to many factors.

Source: Am a beef producer with my own herd of cattle.

Other source: I help my extended family on their dairy farm from time to time.

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[–] holofan4life ago 

I always enjoy learning new things. Thanks for your comment! Very informative.

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[–] WORF_MOTORBOATS_TROI ago  (edited ago)

I knew about that right after they're born, but I wonder if they're left to nurse their mothers for a month last say and the calf starts getting sick a week after being born, will the cow start producing colostrum again?

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[–] jonny1313 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

As of now there is no proof of that. If cattle produced colostrum outside of the birthing process the dairy industry would have a ton of problems as you can't milk a cow if she has colostrum. I would suspect given the science that be, that there are plenty of university studies that test a cows milk throughout the nursing life of a calf. Human milk isn't a product we use daily so it isn't studied like dairy milk.

A dairy farms milk is tested upon pickup. Having colostrum in the milk would likely lead to a very high somatic cell count which would get them all sorts of repercussions. So if this did happen, there would be some massive changes that would need to happen.