The goal of formulating milk replacer is to as closely as possible duplicate – and even improve upon – whole milk. A team of researchers is exploring how to do that based on fat source choices and fatty acids.
Liver abscesses remain a singular, dark cloud over the otherwise sunny segment of dairy-beef-cross cattle. Several entities are performing research to try to solve this frustrating industry obstacle.
The best-quality colostrum is thick, creamy, and has a beautiful golden color, right? Not necessarily, according to Danish veterinarian and researcher Hanne Skovsgaard Pedersen.
As beef-on-dairy animals within the feedlot system continue to rise, feedlots are craving two key pieces of information to help ensure these crossbred cattle thrive.
While it's easy to immediately place blame on your nutritionist for diet related problems, these three problem solving steps need to be taken before you jump to conclusions.
Inulin is a type of soluble fiber found in plants that is not digestible by humans. However, this not-so-talked-about substance is showing considerable promise in enhancing lactating-cow nutrition.
Routinely monitoring transfer of passive immunity is an effective way to evaluate colostrum management and identify calves with failure of passive transfer.
The problem occurs in nearly 50% of cows in the first 24 hours after calving, says Jesse Goff, DVM and ISU professor emeritus. He details four nutrition strategies to prevent or treat the problem so cows aren't culled.
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.
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.
Feed costs will continue to be the No. 1 expense. Jim Salfer, Extension dairy educator with the University of Minnesota, offers some best practices to help producers lower feed costs.
More dairy heifer raisers are taking a page from the feedlot world these days by utilizing liquid supplements as carriers for vitamins, trace minerals, and feed additives in heifer TMRs.
Head to Lancaster County Pennsylvania and the sweet aroma of candy can be smelled on a family dairy farm. Red Knob Dairy has been feeding upcycled Hershey candy waste to their cows for more than a decade.
The “Wood Milk” ad— funded through MilkPEP —goal is to make people pause and question what they are consuming and the nutritional value of their choices.
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.
Supplementing early lactation dairy cow diets with bile acids could provide a pathway to suppressing fatty liver and ketosis, and ultimately boosting milk production and profitability.
Feed additives can be included in dairy cattle diets for a variety of reasons. However, feed additives should not be considered a cornerstone to any farm feeding program.
Have you ever noticed that cows who calve during the fall and winter months tend to produce less colostrum than their herd mates who calved during the spring and summer? Here's why.
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.
Sometimes called “sudden death syndrome” or “bloody gut,” Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome is characterized by dark, tarry, and sometimes bright red, bloody feces; dehydration; and decreased feed intake.
The transition period, 3 weeks before and after calving, is challenging for all cows. But for first-calf heifers, it’s likely the scariest and most stressful time in their young lives.
Researchers at Virginia Tech University have investigated what effects infusing extra acetate or propionate, or lowering the pH, would have on thermodynamics of VFA in the rumen.
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?
Its name sounds like something that belongs in the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. But festulolium actually is a highly useful hybrid forage grass – the result of a cross between fescue grass and ryegrass.
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?