EFFICACY OF ON-FARM PASTEURIZED WASTE MILK SYSTEMS ON
UPPER MIDWEST DAIRY AND CUSTOM CALF
REARING OPERATIONS
Matt Jorgensen1
, Pat Hoffman2
, and Andy Nytes3
Introduction
The practice of feeding raw waste milk to neonatal calves has long been discouraged
because of the potential for disease transmission. Pasteurization of waste milk on
commercial dairy and custom calf rearing operations is currently being considered as an
option to feed neonatal calves to reduce disease transmission potential and capture
economic efficiencies. Interest has primarily been fueled by the recent availability of
reasonably priced on-farm milk pasteurization equipment. Despite new interest and use
of pasteurized waste milk systems on commercial dairy and custom calf rearing
operations, few monitoring systems are in place for producers and their consultants to
evaluate the efficacy of waste milk pasteurization on a routine basis. To date, an
economical commercial assay for testing pasteurization efficacy of waste milk fed to
calves has not been available. The object of this project was to establish an economical
evaluation system for on-farm milk pasteurizers and evaluate their efficacy in a
commercial environment.