By Bethany Dado-Senn, Ph.D., and Lucas Mitchell, Ph.D. | The birth of a calf signals the start of a 24-hour race to ensure the foundation of a strong immune system.
By Lucas Mitchell, Ph.D., Vita Plus | Calves are quite susceptible to disease in their first four weeks of life. How these challenges are combatted varies from farm to farm, but a couple of items consistently ring true.
By Ann Hoskins | Automatic calf feeders can provide helpful insight into daily calf management as well as overall trends of the calf feeding program. In turn, this can help you create efficiencies, make management decisions and improve calf performance.
By Ann Hoskins
Maternal colostrum is a high-value asset on your farm. Unfortunately, that asset often runs short this time of year as many farms see a slump in colostrum production between November and February. Farms need to have a “plan B” in place as they don’t want to short calves on this vital nutrition.
All the settings of an autofeeder work together and one change can affect the others. Program the machine so that milk volume, minimum and maximum limitations, and concentration match your calf-feeding strategy.
By Dr. Lucas Mitchell
Similar to how we rely on the lactating herd’s performance to indicate if something is working or not, if we pay attention to how the calves are performing, they will show us if they are receiving too much, too little, or just the right amount of milk.
By Ann Hoskins
Maternal colostrum is a high-value asset on your farm. Unfortunately, that asset often runs short this time of year as many farms see a slump in colostrum production between November and February. Farms need to have a “plan B” in place as they don’t want to short calves on this vital nutrition.
Refrigerating or freezing excess high-quality colostrum (greater than 22% Brix reading) is a great way to ensure each newborn calf receives this vital nutrition at birth. Because high temperatures can destroy immunoglobulins (IgGs) and other nutrients, colostrum should be carefully thawed and warmed before feeding it to the calf. Producers can easily build their own colostrum thawing and heating unit to accomplish this task by following these simple steps.
By Barry Visser
The goal of most heifer replacement programs is to raise high-quality, healthy heifers in an efficient and economical manner. Bodyweight of a heifer at the time of first calving is a proxy for growth and size. If heifers have not reached the desired size at calving, they will continue to grow during lactation. This is much less efficient and happens at the expense of milk production.
By Dr. Noah Litherland
One key goal of the nursery calf program is to provide an appropriate plane of nutrition (not too high or too low) at the beginning of the nursery phase. Intake amount governs delivery of nutrients, alters rate of passage and impacts microbial communities throughout the gastrointestinal tract.