Latest News From Calf

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Facility Focus: The Best Way to Better Manage Group Maternity Pens for Calmer Calvings

Though maternity pens can sometimes feel chaotic to manage, there are additional ways to help minimize stress and create a calmer calving environment for both cow and calf.

Four Steps Veterinarians Can Take To Help Producers Transition To Beef-On-Dairy
Four Steps Veterinarians Can Take To Help Producers Transition To Beef-On-Dairy

Beef-on-dairy numbers in the U.S. will reach up to 5 million head – roughly 15% of the cattle harvested annually – as early as 2026. The sexed-and-beef model of production will play a prominent role in the process.

America's Heifer Shortage is Preventing Expansion. Is the Big Money for Beef-on-Dairy a Factor?
America's Heifer Shortage is Preventing Expansion. Is the Big Money for Beef-on-Dairy a Factor?

Higher prices for beef calves are incentivizing dairy producers to breed crossbred bull calves

The Plywood Guide (And 6 Other Helpful Calf Barn Tips)
The Plywood Guide (And 6 Other Helpful Calf Barn Tips)

Whether you’re building a new calf barn or retrofitting an existing structure, there are measures that can be taken to ensure the best possible calf comfort, welfare, and health.

How to Increase the Marketability of Beef-on-Dairy Calves
How to Increase the Marketability of Beef-on-Dairy Calves

No matter when beef cross calves are being sold, steps can be taken to make them more marketable.

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How a Spreadsheet Can Help Simplify Calf TPI Tracking

Routinely monitoring transfer of passive immunity is an effective way to evaluate colostrum management and identify calves with failure of passive transfer.

Are You What's Standing in the Way of Pain Mitigation?
Are You What's Standing in the Way of Pain Mitigation?

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.

3 Offense Tools to Control Crypto in Calves
3 Offense Tools to Control Crypto in Calves

Cryptosporidia is one of the most common scours-causing pathogens in preweaned calves, and, unfortunately, it strikes in the early weeks of life when calves are most vulnerable.

Dairy Heifer Supply Tightens
Dairy Heifer Supply Tightens

Heifer availability has tightened, and prices have increased substantially. One reason is the interest that has developed in beef-on-dairy calves.

Calf Microbial Supplements: Sorting out the “Pre,” the “Pro,” and the “Post”
Calf Microbial Supplements: Sorting out the “Pre,” the “Pro,” and the “Post”

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

It Pays to Prevent Respiratory Disease in Feedlot-Bound Cattle
It Pays to Prevent Respiratory Disease in Feedlot-Bound Cattle

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: Freebie or Foible?
Waste Milk: Freebie or Foible?

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.

Calves May Have to Share Their Colostrum with Humans
Calves May Have to Share Their Colostrum with Humans

Colostrum’s myriad benefits for calves may be transferrable to an entirely different field: human health. Researchers are discovering the benefits of colostrum in both health nutrition supplements and therapeutic agents.

New Lidocaine-Infused Band Reduces Castration Pain, Discomfort
New Lidocaine-Infused Band Reduces Castration Pain, Discomfort

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.

The 7 Repro Sins You Can't Afford to Make
The 7 Repro Sins You Can't Afford to Make

These commonly overlooked issues are holding your herd back.

Acidification Allows 24/7 Milk Access for These Calves
Acidification Allows 24/7 Milk Access for These Calves

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.

Try to Keep Dry to Prevent Crypto
Try to Keep Dry to Prevent Crypto

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.

Four Tips for Cleaning and Storing Calf Jackets
Four Tips for Cleaning and Storing Calf Jackets

With temperatures rising from coast to coast, now is the time to wash and put away all of the calf jackets used over winter.

Calf Nutrition: Supplement Strategies that Work
Calf Nutrition: Supplement Strategies that Work

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 Old is New Again in Calf Management
The Old is New Again in Calf Management

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.

7 Tips for More Effective Vaccination Programs in Calves
7 Tips for More Effective Vaccination Programs in Calves

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.

Does Acidification Improve Colostrum?
Does Acidification Improve Colostrum?

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.

Mixology Matters with Milk Replacer
Mixology Matters with Milk Replacer

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

The Eyes Have It When Detecting Early Calf Respiratory Disease
The Eyes Have It When Detecting Early Calf Respiratory Disease

Detecting respiratory disease in calves early – when treatment is most effective – should start by examining the head and facial features, according to veterinarian Tiago Tomazi with Merck Animal Health.

Shorter Hauls Suggested for Traveling Calves
Shorter Hauls Suggested for Traveling Calves

When baby calves are transported from their home dairy to a separate rearing site, they need support in multiple ways.

More Milk Could Mean Faster Healing for Young Calves
More Milk Could Mean Faster Healing for Young Calves

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.

Calves Could Benefit from Physical Enrichment
Calves Could Benefit from Physical Enrichment

Just like children letting off some steam on the playground, calves too could benefit from physical enrichment.

The Pros and Cons of Caustic Paste
The Pros and Cons of Caustic Paste

University of Wisconsin animal welfare researcher Sarah Adcock addresses several considerations when using caustic paste to complete disbudding, as well as some drawbacks that could be improved upon.

9 Practices to Help Resuscitate a Newborn Calf
9 Practices to Help Resuscitate a Newborn Calf

After a typical birth the calf should breathe within 30 seconds of delivery, says Dr. Geof Smith, dairy technical services veterinarian for Zoetis. If it isn't, you need to intervene.

Six Straw Alternatives to Get You Through a Bedding Shortage
Six Straw Alternatives to Get You Through a Bedding Shortage

If you are experiencing a shortage in your straw supply, here are six bedding alternatives to consider.

Time to Break Out the Calf Jackets
Time to Break Out the Calf Jackets

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.

Are Dairy Crossbreds Harder to Calve?
Are Dairy Crossbreds Harder to Calve?

Compared to Holsteins, is calving time with crossbreds more difficult in terms of calf weight, stillbirth, gestation length, or dystocia?

Colostrum May Have Yet Another Virtue: Scours Treatment
Colostrum May Have Yet Another Virtue: Scours Treatment

Effectively treating calves for scours could be as easy as feeding them something that virtually every dairy farm has on hand: colostrum.

Speer: Dairy Cows Now On Double Duty
Speer: Dairy Cows Now On Double Duty

America's dairy industry has been robust the last several decades. Now, larger average dairies are producing more beef-dairy crossbred calves that are much higher quality for producing beef.

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What Can We Do Better for Calves?
What Can We Do Better for Calves?

Updates from the Dairy Cattle Welfare Symposium 2022

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An Easier Way to Temp Calves?
An Easier Way to Temp Calves?

Monitoring calves’ body temperature is a critical metric to maintaining their health, and is especially valuable if temperature changes can be detected early.

Do you have a Calf Herd Program?
Do you have a Calf Herd Program?

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.

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Calves Can Be Picky About Trace Minerals

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.

Pour Hydration to Heat-stressed Calves
Pour Hydration to Heat-stressed Calves

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

How to Mimic the Perks of Transition Milk
How to Mimic the Perks of Transition Milk

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?

7 Steps to Start Calves on Starter
7 Steps to Start Calves on Starter

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.

“Hybrid” Approach Helps Maximize Colostrum Quality
“Hybrid” Approach Helps Maximize Colostrum Quality

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?

How to Pick the Best Electrolyte for Your Calves
How to Pick the Best Electrolyte for Your Calves

Pardon the pun, but dealing with scours can be a real pain in the butt. It’s frustrating, it’s costly, and it can be downright messy at times.

Late Maternal Stress Proves to be Real
Late Maternal Stress Proves to be Real

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.

Dairy Semen Sales hit 17-Year-Low: What Will the Trend be Going Forward?
Dairy Semen Sales hit 17-Year-Low: What Will the Trend be Going Forward?

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,.

Foolproof Colostrum Protocols Makes all the Difference
Foolproof Colostrum Protocols Makes all the Difference

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.

Could SARA be “Good” for Calves?
Could SARA be “Good” for Calves?

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.

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Bottle Beats the Bucket in Providing Winter Water

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.

Could Autofeeders Help Detect Calf Disease?
Could Autofeeders Help Detect Calf Disease?

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?

Crypto in Calves: Better Managed with a Shovel than a Needle
Crypto in Calves: Better Managed with a Shovel than a Needle

As one of the top scourges to calf raisers, cryptosporidium is an ever-present challenge that rarely takes a holiday.