Animal health

By Dr. Eric Schwab
Mycotoxins are present in a wide range of livestock feeds. While the focus has been primarily on cereal grains, haylage and hay can also contain mycotoxins. Grain byproducts, such as distiller’s grains and corn gluten feed, can have mycotoxin concentrations two to three times greater than the parent material as little mycotoxin destruction occurs during processing and concentration occurs in the byproduct stream. Testing for mycotoxins should be considered when symptoms of toxicity exist among a large population of animals on your farm and cannot be readily explained.

When was the last time you and your herd veterinarian spent time together with calves? Even if the calves are healthy, your veterinarian should still be involved in the development of calf management practices. Here are five questions to ask your herd veterinarian to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your calf-rearing program.

By Barry Visser
Dairy cattle behavior and appearance often make it easy to detect external parasites like flies, mange and lice. Severe internal parasite infiltrations can result in roughness of hair coat, anemia, edema and diarrhea. However, the subclinical impact of internal parasites is largely hidden, yet costly. According to a recent study at Iowa State University , undetected subclinical disease caused by internal parasites can cost $190 per animal.

More than 175 calf raisers, Vita Plus consultants and industry peers came together June 20 and 21 for Vita Plus Calf Summit 2018 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Follow the links in this post to access full event coverage, including speakers' PowerPoint presentations, articles and more.

By Dr. Mat Faulkner
In the past, we balanced micronutrients using the “holiday pie theory” – if some is good, more is better.

But that isn’t the case anymore. In fact, overfeeding micronutrients can not only be costly to the producer, but it can also be deadly to the animal.

By Dr. Zach Sawall
In early lactation, cows enter negative energy balance. This comes from increased energy demands for milk production, which can’t be met from dry matter (DM) intake. If cows can’t adjust to this negative energy balance, excess body reserves are mobilized, leading to higher counts of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) and ketones, specifically beta-hydroxy butyrate (BHBA).

By Dr. Andy Kniesly
Reproductive performance on dairies is one of many key areas that can have a huge impact on profitability. It is no surprise dairy farmers continue to look for ways to improve reproduction programs.