Calf
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.
Extra water – along with a possible electrolyte boost -- is never more important than in the heat of summer.
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?
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?
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.
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,.
Veterinarians have at least eight options for doing a cesarean section (c-section) in cattle, but most rely on only one.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Simply producing a black calf if not enough if the dairy industry wants to make permanent inroads into successful crossbreeding.
As one of the top scourges to calf raisers, cryptosporidium is an ever-present challenge that rarely takes a holiday.
Calves with navel infections will present wet or pus ridden navel cords and their navel areas will be swollen, hard, and painful to the touch.
Winter ushers in a season of high tide for scours and pneumonia in preweaned calves. The sooner their sickness is detected, the more effective treatment and supportive therapy will be. Here’s a list of 10 ways to help.
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.
Even healthy calves can suffer dehydration in extremely hot weather.
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.
An esophageal tube feeder can be a lifeline for young calves, delivering colostrum, milk or electrolytes when they are unable to suckle a bottle. But incorrect use of these feeders can be dangerous or even deadly.
Dairy farmer James Anderson was surprised when a calf that was born to one of his black-and-white Holsteins came out red and white. He was even more surprised when it came out with two heads.
While it is possible to wean calves from milk-based rations at as early as 6 weeks of age, University of Guelph calf researcher Michael Steele says it’s not optimal.
A growing body of evidence suggests there are wide-reaching benefits to following colostrum with several feedings of transition milk.
Research shows it is not possible to eliminate the possibility of a calf becoming infected with Salmonella by good management and hygiene during or after the calving process, as it may have been infected in utero.
Successful transition from a milk-based diet to a diet of grain and forages requires proper rumen development.
While there are several methods of dehorning dairy calves available, many producers prefer to use caustic paste.