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Heifers are highly susceptible to internal parasites
Strategic deworming with Safe-Guard® helps your heifers perform to their potential. Click here to learn more (PDF format).
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Hot-weather vaccination reminders
Summer may not officially begin until June 21, but now is a good time to refresh your memory on vaccinating calves and heifers on hot days. Keep these tips in mind:
- Mix the smallest amount of vaccine possible.
- As you’re vaccinating, store the vaccine in an insulated container with a cold pack to keep the temperature low.
- Give vaccines when body temperature is lowest — usually in the early morning. If morning temperatures exceed 80 F, delay vaccination.
 Disease-control tips you can use
Disease control starts with proper education of your employees. When working with young calves, Jim Reynolds, service chief of dairy production medicine at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, Calif., recommends that you:
1. Avoid entering hutches unless no other choice exists. If you step in manure — even if you spray your boots off — you can’t get your boots clean enough to prevent disease transfer to the next calf.
2. When working with tethered calves, step on the rope and treat the animal outside.
3. Tell employees which calf diseases are present, so they can handle the calves appropriately. For example, with crypto and rotavirus, calves shed the disease in manure, so employees must avoid all contact with the rear end of the calf. But with salmonella, the disease is transferred both through saliva and manure, so employees must be careful to avoid contact with the mouth, nose and rear of the calf.
4. Always disinfect equipment between calves when giving oral medications.
Calves will forecast diarrhea
If a calf has become infected with salmonella, she’ll let you know. “Calves will broadcast when they are going to break with diarrhea,” says Sheila McGuirk, veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine. Roughly 12 to 24 hours before diarrhea begins, a calf’s temperature will rise 1.5 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the time to start antibiotics, McGuirk says. Work with your veterinarian to determine which antibiotic will be most effective.
Animal spends nearly half its time as a heifer
Data from Lancaster (Pa.) DHIA indicate the age at first calving among member herds runs 25.8 months, on average. Compare that with the average lifetime (54 months), and you see that an animal spends nearly half its time as a calf or heifer. This suggests that:
- Producers should spend more time focusing on heifers.
- When heifers calve at 23 to 24 months of age, they have more productive time spent in the milking string. Producers can’t control a lot of things, but they can control age at first calving, points out Jay Mylin, manager of Lancaster DHIA, which serves 3,000 herds located mainly in Pennsylvania.
Calf training in Spanish
Looking for a training opportunity for your Spanish-speaking employees? “Successful Calf Raising” will be presented in Spanish on May 30 in Greeley, Colo., and again May 31 in Fort Morgan, Colo. To learn more about this Colorado State University extension program, follow this link. (You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the file.) Or, call Noa Roman-Muniz at (970) 297-4106.
Labor management help
The University of Vermont has developed an excellent Web site to help you sort through employee-management issues. It covers recruitment, compensation, personnel policies, supervision and management, training, safety, managing a multicultural workforce, as well as legal and compliance issues. To access it, follow this link.
More help with heifer labor management
For more help with dealing with labor issues that relate specifically to heifer-raising, check out “Labor Management for Heifer Rearing” from Penn State University. To access the publication, follow this link.
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