Dairy Calves - News & Insights
Stay updated on the latest dairy calf management strategies. Explore expert advice on colostrum management, calf nutrition, disease prevention, and the beef-on-dairy trend to ensure a healthy, productive future for your herd.
A recent survey shows that the likelihood of using pain mitigation for common procedures like dehorning, disbudding and castration was directly linked to the human managers’ perception of pain for the animal.
A popular combination of enhancements in calf starter rations has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for replacement heifers.
Heifer availability has tightened, and prices have increased substantially. One reason is the interest that has developed in beef-on-dairy calves.
In both human and veterinary medicine, we’re hearing more about the benefits of gut supplements to support health, performance, and well-being.
More calves born on dairies than ever before are eventually headed to feedyards these days. Performance and profitability merits sending healthy animals from the calf-rearing stage to the feedlot.
Waste milk is not necessarily the “free lunch” it is often perceived to be, and may actually be a quite harzardous and costly liquid ration option.
Research showed a statistically significant decrease in respiratory disease in the animals at around 21 days of age,
Calves coming down with illness often are very good at masking their symptoms. Use these methods to detect sickness or stress early on.
Solvet Lidoband is approved for use in calves under 250 pounds and in lambs under 50 pounds. The local, soothing anesthesia works for up to 42 days, helping veterinarians and producers improve animal well-being.
Mercer Vu Dairy wanted to utilize group housing and waste milk to raise their preweaned calves with round-the-clock access to milk. Here’s how they came up with their own one-of-a-kind system.
A massive question dairy producers often ask themselves is who should be raising replacement heifers. Should they be raised by the producer, contracted out and customed raised, or should they be purchased?
When a cow freshens during the fall or winter, she tends to produce less colostrum than her herd mates who calved in spring and summer. It’s no coincidence. Now research is shedding some “light” on the situation.
In these tumultuous times of drought, global unrest, and supply chain disruptions, feed grains may not be as plentiful, available, and affordable as we have traditionally enjoyed.
The Cryptosporidium parasite is endemic to even the tidiest dairy farms, and is especially threatening to calf health. But it can be kept at bay in the calf management system with one simple and consistent approach.
It may not be a fancy cocktail, but accurate mixology is important for calf milk replacer, too.
We don’t feed dairy calves the way we used to, and that’s a very good thing, according to calf industry consultant Dave Kuehnel.
The heat is on, and calves feel it, too. Here are five strategies to help calves cope as summer sizzles on.
Calves and heifers aren’t as susceptible to heat stress as cows, but they do suffer from it to some degree, and their production is diminished as a result.
There’s a new equipment option for raising preweaned dairy calves, and it’s a far cry from the pocket-knife-slice approach of the past.
Raising heifers is expensive, to be sure. But in the long run, raising them right is far more important than raising them cheap.
What dietary supplements are best for preweaned calf rations? Out of the literally hundreds from which to choose, do any of them really work?
The Holstein breed is wrestling with the phenomenon of a newly identified genetic defect for Recumbency.
With temperatures rising from coast to coast, now is the time to wash and put away all of the calf jackets used over winter.
Precision dairy technology isn’t just for cows. Autofeeders, activity monitors, and other emerging tools are making it possible to raise calves with the type of individual attention received by the calves of yesterday.
Surplus dairy calves – those not intended for breeding – are their own, unique subset of the dairy industry.
Ask 10 dairy producers what they believe is an effective vaccination program for calves, and you’ll likely get 10 unique answers. That’s OK, because there is no effective one-size-fits-all strategy.
With drought and production costs pushing the native beef population to a record low, beef-on-dairy has a huge opportunity to keep the feedlots and processors at full capacity.
Real-time monitoring of the environmental conditions for baby calves during transport would be highly beneficial to their comfort and health. Now, that task is becoming a possibility.
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.
Factors for consideration include colostrum management, group composition and dynamics, bedding and space, nutritional management, early disease detection and the need for “real life” observations.