Calf
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Just like children letting off some steam on the playground, calves too could benefit from physical enrichment.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Compared to Holsteins, is calving time with crossbreds more difficult in terms of calf weight, stillbirth, gestation length, or dystocia?
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.
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.
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.
Extra water – along with a possible electrolyte boost -- is never more important than in the heat of summer.
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.