The SENSEHUB monitoring ear tag incorporates a blinking LED light so workers can quickly and easily locate those animals and apply appropriate interventions.
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.
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.
Dairy farms are a hustling and bustling place. Last year, the Berning family in Illinois opened their dairy farm barn doors and offer Farm Camp for kids of all ages. Camp includes farm chores, scavenger hunts and more.
Feeding waste milk to calves captures high-quality nutrients and adds value to a product that otherwise would be discarded. But recent research sheds light on concerns about the practice.
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.
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?
The increased cost associated with raising heifers has made producers retool their thinking. Earlier management decisions are happening on dairies, with a more dialed-in, strategic breeding philosophy being adapted.
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?
The new Calf Care & Quality Assurance program is ready to engage some arms and legs to carry out its mission. The second CCQA Instructor training is planned for June 2022.
Young animals often benefit from stemmy, lower quality forages. WIth regard to nutrition, this may seem counterintuitive but research indicates that's the case.
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,.
In the quest to find alternatives to antibiotics to fight disease in dairy calves, essential oils are the subject of a growing body of calf health research.
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.
During the recent Academy of Veterinary Consultants conference, Dan Altena, DVM, Valley Veterinarians Inc., offered some take-home points to help veterinarians with crossbred calves in the feedyard.
The dairy, beef, and veal sectors are collaborating to form a first-of-its-kind program to promote the health and welfare of calves throughout the supply chain.
Habits formed early in life – whether good or bad – often carry through to adulthood. Like little children, calves, too, need to be trained on positive behaviors, including the way they eat.
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?
Dairy farmers and calf raisers have tried to adapt calves to solid calf starter as soon as possible to save money. If this is done poorly, calf raising costs can soar due to increased levels of sickness and even death.
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.
When the mercury drops, preweaned calves expend more energy to maintain their body temperature. They often need added nutrients to keep them healthy and growing through frigid conditions.
While every dairy farmer has a unique affection dairy calves, the next great generation of his or her milking herd, it’s not a good idea to kiss them or allow farm visitors to smooch away.
Want to keep disease out of your calf barn? If so, it might be prudent to take a page from the biosecurity measures of our pig-and-poultry-raising kin, and set up a “Danish entry.”
As awareness of animal welfare grows, new methods of detecting and evaluating stress and pain in calves are being evaluated. Researchers are exploring heart rate variability as an accurate, non-invasive assessment tool.
If you sell your bull calves shortly after birth, it’s tempting to send them down the road with no colostrum. But those animals will be far better served if you take the time to get them the colostrum they need.
As the thermometer climbs, farmers are eager to make sure their fans and sprinklers are running to keep lactating and dry cows cool. But just like adult cows, calves are also challenged by hot weather.
Prepackaged colostrum replacers are an easy way to quickly feed colostrum to a newborn calf. However, while they do come with many benefits, there are a few potential negative aspects of utilizing this nutritional tool.
When consumers think about dairy farming, one of their greatest concerns are the calves. That can be a good thing because farmers have a great story to tell. But it also may require some flexing of rearing practices.
Using pain mitigation techniques when disbudding or dehorning is now the standard of care for U.S. cattle veterinary and quality assurance organizations.
