Dairy Calves - News & Insights
Stay updated on the latest dairy calf management strategies. Explore expert advice on colostrum management, calf nutrition, disease prevention, and the beef-on-dairy trend to ensure a healthy, productive future for your herd.
It’s almost time for the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association’s 2024 Annual Conference, and this year the organization heads to a western location in Westminster, Colo. for the 3-day event.
Is there a drug-free way to improve cattle health, feed utilization, reproductive efficiency, and environmental impact, all at the prenatal level? Researchers at North Dakota State University think so.
How helpful would it be to look inside live calves to inspect their lung condition? That’s now possible with the same ultrasound technology veterinarians use to diagnose pregnancies.
Along with the many other challenges that winter presents for calf and heifer raisers, the risk of pneumonia in young stock goes up as the mercury goes down.
No matter when beef cross calves are being sold, steps can be taken to make them more marketable.
A consortium of dairy industry leadership groups is bringing the birth of dairy calves to life for consumers in Pennsylvania.
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.
Routinely monitoring transfer of passive immunity is an effective way to evaluate colostrum management and identify calves with failure of passive transfer.
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.
Capturing the benefits of socially rearing calves while avoiding the negative effects of cross-sucking is a challenge. An alternative to keep calves busy? Hay.
As the thermometer starts to dip lower and lower, now is the time to make sure your calf warming room is in tip-top shape.
A popular combination of enhancements in calf starter rations has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for replacement heifers.
What would you think of a nutrient that improved preweaned calf rate of gain by 33%, yet cost next to nothing? Surely this would be another claim for “foo-foo” dust, correct?
Heifer availability has tightened, and prices have increased substantially. One reason is the interest that has developed in beef-on-dairy calves.
In both human and veterinary medicine, we’re hearing more about the benefits of gut supplements to support health, performance, and well-being.
The more we learn about the myriad virtues of colostrum, the more of it we want. And if it also could be even higher quality and/or produce higher offspring immunity, that would be even better for calves.
After a typical birth a calf should breathe within 30 seconds of delivery. If it doesn’t, be ready to intervene and provide extra support.
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 is not necessarily the “free lunch” it is often perceived to be, and may actually be a quite harzardous and costly liquid ration option.
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.
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.
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.
A massive question dairy producers often ask themselves is who should be raising replacement heifers. Should they be raised by the producer, contracted out and customed raised, or should they be purchased?
Each region of the U.S. presents its own challenges with raising calves, with the varying landscapes often dictating the layout of calf facilities.
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.
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.
It may not be a fancy cocktail, but accurate mixology is important for calf milk replacer, too.
We don’t feed dairy calves the way we used to, and that’s a very good thing, according to calf industry consultant Dave Kuehnel.
The heat is on, and calves feel it, too. Here are five strategies to help calves cope as summer sizzles on.
Individually housed calves can take up to two days to find feed and water when they are first comingled with others at weaning.