Latest News From Dairy Nutrition

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.

Numerous studies have now shown that feeding colostrum replacer to mimic transition milk has beneficial effects for preweaned calves.

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.

For the past 13 years, Cornell researchers have been developing the latest, highly anticipated CNCPS version 7.

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.

Is the blanket approach of giving calcium boluses to every fresh cow really the best route to prevent milk fever?

A popular combination of enhancements in calf starter rations has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for replacement heifers.

In both human and veterinary medicine, we’re hearing more about the benefits of gut supplements to support health, performance, and well-being.

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.

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.

With no end to the higher feed cost trend in sight, farmers are looking at ways to get the most out of their rations while minimizing wasted feed.

What’s the perfect close-up ration to optimize calf health -- something that’s not too much of this or too little of that, but “just right?”

The heat is on, and calves feel it, too. Here are five strategies to help calves cope as summer sizzles on.

A popular Chinese herbal supplement is being evaluated as a potential feed additive to mitigate the effects of heat stress in dairy cattle.

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.

The livestock production businesses of the future will need to balance much more than the bottom line.

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.

Rumen pH is highly influential on how milkfat production can be maximized.

Raising heifers is expensive, to be sure. But in the long run, raising them right is far more important than raising them cheap.

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.

“Pushing feed is perhaps the simplest and least expensive management strategy dairy operators can implement.”

What dietary supplements are best for preweaned calf rations? Out of the literally hundreds from which to choose, do any of them really work?

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.

It may not be a fancy cocktail, but accurate mixology is important for calf milk replacer, too.

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.

Could probiotics improve early calf growth? Researchers think so.

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.

Inflammation creates additional stress at calving.

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.

When it comes to the products of rumen fermentation, butyrate is a beneficial amino acid superstar.

In our quest for healthy, growthy, efficiently raised calves, have we lost some of the more fundamental elements of what makes calves tick?

Creating a herd where all the individuals are healthy and normal increases your chances of economic success.

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.

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

Paying attention to feed-bunk behaviors can alert dairy producers to issues with diet, feed management or delivery that impact health and performance.

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?