Colostrum fed to newborn Scottish dairy calves is highly contaminated. Bacteria in colostrum have the potential to cause disease and prevent calves from absorbing antibodies from their gut after birth, so calves are more likely to get sick and to die. Bacterial contamination may come from a number of different sources including the: cow’s udder, collection bucket, storage bucket and calf feeder. It is important that buckets and feeders are scrupulously cleaned after every use, but many farmers fail to do this. The project aims to identify the main source of contamination for first milking colostrum to allow farmers to focus their attention on these ‘critical control points’ which will have implications for calf health and welfare. In addition, the prevalence of Mycoplasma which causes significant disease in newborn calves will be ascertained. Recent UK work has focussed on bulk milk samples and concluded that contamination is low, but prevalence in colostrum is unknown.