Starting Strong – Calf Care

The Finger family has farmed in Oconto, Wisconsin, for more than 150 years. With exceptional animal care as a top priority on the dairy farm, the family and its team of employees continue to learn, evolve, and adapt to new strategies to maximize cow and calf success.

Keeping calves clean, dry and comfortable is the hallmark of a successful calf facility. Properly designed calf housing can positively impact calf performance, growth, feed efficiency and labor.

I’m an avid dairy science podcast subscriber. One episode I listened to discussed extreme heat stress in lactating dairy cows. Late in the episode, one of the experts noted that, although cooling cows seems relatively straightforward, he is continuously surprised at the never-ending and novel concerns surrounding dairy cattle heat stress.

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is considered a primary health challenge on farm, requiring individual calf treatment. Symptoms of respiratory disease are not always observable, especially in the early stages of growth, and are influenced by stressors such as weather or pen changes.

The earlier the better when it comes to catching dehydration in calves.  Identifying mild dehydration and fixing the problem in the early stages will save you a lot of headaches in the coming days.

In 1960, Gilbert and Carol Helt purchased a farm in Dane, Wisconsin, and started milking 30 cows. Gilbert’s son, Dale, and his wife, Diane, purchased the farm in the late 1980s and updated the milking parlor in 1999.

As we approach the spring season, temperature fluctuations are guaranteed. Increased ambient temperatures during the day, increased humidity and cooler nights have clear impacts on heifer performance and health.

In general, wheat straw is viewed as the gold standard of bedding material for dairy calves, especially in cold climates. Other common bedding materials used for dairy calves in the U.S. are sawdust, wood shavings and sand. The popularity of each is primarily driven by climate, availability and price.

You never get a second chance to feed the first meal.  Many calf colostrum replacers are available, and choosing the right colostrum replacer for your program can be complicated.

No one can agree if calves need more or less colostrum. If you’ve listened to colostrum chatter over the past few years, you’ve likely heard recommendations to feed more to aid in additional passive immune transfer. Recent field conversations are encouraging us to feed less. Why is there a discrepancy?

After cash cropping and raising beef cattle on multiple sites for several years, Keven and Cheryl Schultz of Fox Lake, Wisconsin, decided to consolidate their farming operations and build a brand new 400-cow dairy in 1993.

As calves begin the weaning process and transition from milk to solid feed as their sole source of nutrition, producers may observe stalled growth and deteriorating health performance. The reasons for this are often due to one or a combination of the following factors: poor health in early life, poor rumen development and stressful changes.

We have learned many things along the way as autofeeders become more popular in the calf raising world.  On the dairy, we tend to learn most things through experience – good or bad.  While that makes it difficult to pinpoint exact “rights and wrongs,” learning from others’ experiences can help us focus on making the best use of this evolving technology.

It’s time to dust off your calf jackets in preparation for the colder weather. The following are some important reminders for your staff about calf jacket usage, as well as some timely preparedness tips before jacket season starts in full force.

In this Starting Strong video, Bethany Dado-Senn, Ph.D., discusses how to monitor heat stress in calves.

Everyone knows water is one of six essential nutrients.  However, the magnitude of its importance is often unrealized and, in some situations, downplayed.