Latest News From Calf

Acidification of milk or milk replacer is a common practice for some calf raisers, with some studies showing it improves weight gain and fecal scores in calves.

Barry Whitworth, Oklahoma State University Extension veterinarian recommends cow-calf operators keep several doses of colostrum or colostrum replacer handy as calving season is underway in many parts of the country.

Plans for calving season should include how to identify and manage cold stress in newborns. Here's what you need to know.

Detecting respiratory disease in calves early – when treatment is most effective – should start by examining the head and facial features, according to veterinarian Tiago Tomazi with Merck Animal Health.

A management plan using clean calving pastures can help prevent direct contact between older calves and younger calves and minimize the potential for sickness to occur.

Calf scours results in sickness, poor performance, medical expenses and death. Here's a look at the complex disease and one management method found to decrease and even prevent transmission.

Raising an orphaned beef calf can be time consuming and may require additional expense. Additionally, calves may not be thriving at the time they are orphaned so managing health and nutrition can present challenges.

Caffeine may help stimulate at-risk calves that are the result of dystocia (difficult birth), hypothermia from being born in the cold, or being run down from a stressful event such as disease or transport. 

At approximately 90 to 120 days after calving, forage provides most of the calf’s nutrient requirements, which introduces a management decision: should I creep feed? 

While “high-risk” cattle are often given high levels of hay or forage to aid in the transition to a milled diet, a study at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researches ways to increase performance.

When baby calves are transported from their home dairy to a separate rearing site, they need support in multiple ways.

It has been well-documented that feeding preweaned calves on a higher plane of nutrition improves calf health and performance. However, providing calves more nutrients may also promote wound healing.

In the past, it was believed there was no point to give injectable respiratory vaccines before about 4 months of age, because they would be inactivated by maternal antibodies. A recent study proves that’s not the case.

Just like children letting off some steam on the playground, calves too could benefit from physical enrichment.

Decision-making for treating tough diseases in dairy calves is complex and challenging. Sometimes timely euthanasia is needed. More training and support for calf caretakers are needed in the process.

The third trimester is critical to calf development – like the final leg of a race – and cows need to be primed to reach the finish line.

Whether calves will be retained and backgrounded or sold shortly after weaning, it is important to consider the impacts of weaning strategies on calf health and performance.

University of Wisconsin animal welfare researcher Sarah Adcock addresses several considerations when using caustic paste to complete disbudding, as well as some drawbacks that could be improved upon.

After a typical birth the calf should breathe within 30 seconds of delivery, says Dr. Geof Smith, dairy technical services veterinarian for Zoetis. If it isn't, you need to intervene.

If you are experiencing a shortage in your straw supply, here are six bedding alternatives to consider.

Elizabeth Homerosky, DVM, Veterinary Agri-Health Services, set out to find how to quickly identify compromised calves and help predict whether they can acquire optimal passive immunity. She shares what she learned here.

Because newborn calves have very little body fat to help them stay warm, calf jackets can help them preserve energy, protect immunity and improve daily gain.

During periods of cold or wet weather, newborn calves (less than 2 days of age) should be checked every few hours with a thermometer and any calf with a below-normal temperature, even if it appears OK, should be warmed.

Projected value of gains for growing calves this winter are in the $1.35 to $1.40 per pound range and has the potential to go even higher based on projections for available feeder cattle numbers next spring.

Compared to Holsteins, is calving time with crossbreds more difficult in terms of calf weight, stillbirth, gestation length, or dystocia?

Effectively treating calves for scours could be as easy as feeding them something that virtually every dairy farm has on hand: colostrum.

And just like that, it’s time for fall processing. Let’s look closely at what to give weaning-aged calves for a leg-up in their next stage of life.     

America's dairy industry has been robust the last several decades. Now, larger average dairies are producing more beef-dairy crossbred calves that are much higher quality for producing beef.

Updates from the Dairy Cattle Welfare Symposium 2022

Monitoring calves’ body temperature is a critical metric to maintaining their health, and is especially valuable if temperature changes can be detected early.

While Lung Ultrasound is the cornerstone of any good Calf Herd Health Program, there are many other benefits to getting your herd vet in your calf barn on a regular basis.

Shrink is a concern because it reduces sales weight, but abnormal levels of shrink is often used as a health indicator for cattle arriving in receiving facilities at stocker operations, grow yards, and feedlots.

Trace minerals are important to calves’ development, but these nutritional components can vary in source. It turns out some trace minerals are more palatable than others, resulting in differences in consumption.

Extra water – along with a possible electrolyte boost -- is never more important than in the heat of summer.

We now know the beneficial influence of feeding transition milk to calves. Is there a way to deliver that nutritional and immunological support and bypass the tedious process of harvesting and feeding transition milk?

Know when to cut and when to run. With the former, Amanda Hartnack, DVM, recommends fixing those hernias in the field that are no larger than 10 to 15 centimeters.   

The sooner calves eat enough dry feed to sustain themselves, the better equipped they are to bridge the nutritional gap between the fixed liquid ration and a weaned diet of solely dry feeds.

Maternal colostrum is often considered nature’s “perfect food.” But does this “free” resource help calves achieve passive immunity as reliably as the guaranteed ingredients in a bag of colostrum replacer?

Every re-treatment puts additional stress on calves and reduces profit margins due to the additional medicine and labor costs. On the other hand, waiting too long to re-treat can increase the number of sick calves.

Spring calving brings the promise of working calves and branding season. Each operation is set up differently with varying resources to work calves. How do you minimize cattle stress during this event?

Pardon the pun, but dealing with scours can be a real pain in the butt. It’s frustrating, it’s costly, and it can be downright messy at times.

It’s important to stay abreast of new research that can influence dairy management practices. That’s what happened recently at Rosy-Lane Holsteins, Watertown, Wis.

With the cost of inflation impacting every corner of a dairy, the producer’s breeding strategy has been forced to become finetuned. More and more producers are keeping just enough replacements to fill the pipeline,.

A protocol overhaul helped the team at Singing Brook Farms, Imler, Pa., up their game in colostrum delivery. Two of their key managers share how they now seamlessly deliver high-quality colostrum to every newborn calf.

It is well-known that sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a harmful and costly condition for adult dairy cows. But when calves get SARA, is it bad news for them, too? A Canadian researcher’s conclusion: maybe not.

Providing free choice water to newborn calves has been shown to deliver a wide array of benefits in terms of calf health and performance. But it’s also a huge challenge for some farms in the winter.

You should provide assistance immediately if you notice an abnormal presentation of the calf (AKA back feet, only one leg, etc.) or when there is no progress after 30 minutes for a cow or 60 minutes for a heifer.

Wet, cold conditions often contribute to cattle producers re-examining the timing of their calving seasons. Does moving the season to a different time of year make sense for your clients?

The tick transmits Theileria orientalis to many animal species, including cattle, pigs, horses, sheep and goats. Death occurs in up to 5% of affected animals, according to Washington State University scientists.

More and more farms have made the switch from feeding calves individually to group autofed systems. However, disease detection in group-housed calves remains a challenge. Could autofeeders help detect sick calves?