Practice Tips
Baby heifers – which do we keep?
Making the decision on which heifers to keep back for replacements can start as early as that heifer’s birth.
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Tip of the Week looks at hypothermia
Spring may be here, at least by the calendar, but cold temperatures are still a threat to newborn calves. The Dairy Calf & Heifer Association has compiled some advice for detecting and dealing with hypothermia in newborn calves.
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Diet plays key role in heifer mastitis control
Managing mastitis in dairy replacement heifers includes several preventative measures, including dietary supplementation to improve the udder's resistance to infection.
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Try to avoid body condition loss now
Cows in many Midwestern herds are calving in marginal body condition. Short hay and standing forage supplies as well as expensive supplemental feeds, are partially to blame.
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Make the most of drylotted pairs
As we head into spring and summer, many producers are coming up short on pasture forage and may be considering drylotting cows and their calves.
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Five steps to improve heifer reproduction
The gold standard for monitoring reproduction in heifers, just as in cows, is how quickly open heifers are converted to pregnant heifers, noted John Lee, managing veterinarian, Dairy Veterinary Technical Services for Zoetis.
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Take advantage of eCVIs
The federal Animal Disease Traceability Rule, which will go into effect March 11, establishes minimum national official identification and documentation requirements for the traceability of livestock moving interstate.
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The euthanasia treatment protocol
Death is an unfortunate reality of livestock production. Ohio veterinarian Fred Gingrich offers advice on determining when euthanasia is appropriate, and how to do it humanely.
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'Raw counts' can be useful
Greg Goodell, DVM, Heifer Authority, Greeley, Colo., says there are many ways to monitor disease on the dairy.
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Feedlot storm preparation
Anne Burkholder, owner of Will Feed, Cozad, Neb., knows how to prepare her feedlot for an impending winter storm. Last week Mother Nature dumped about 12 inches of snow on her 3,000-head feedlot, but she was ready. Prior to the storm Burkholder shared a storm preparedness checklist on her Feedyard Foodie blog.
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Managing water issues on the feedlot
Feedlot calves drink approximately three times their dry matter intake (DMI) in the fall, winter and spring. That increases to about five times their DMI in the summer.
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