Animal health

The team at Birchen Farms Inc. in Pearl City, Illinois, pre-fills condiment cups with iodine and stores the cups in buckets in the maternity area. Iodine is always ready and available when a newborn calf needs its navel dipped. The disposable cups prevent cross-contamination between calves.

By Dr. Keith Poulsen, University of Wisconsin-Madison Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
While most of us want to know why all abortions happen, this article focuses on when you should have a diagnostic work-up done, what you can learn from them, and how you can apply it to dairy herd management.

Providing high-quality, clean colostrum to newborn calves may be more difficult in the late-fall and winter months as farms often see a slump in cows’ colostrum production. SerPass colostrum replacers provide a convenient, safe, and effective alternative. 

By Dr. Noah Litherland, Vita Plus dairy youngstock technical specialist
Developing replacement heifers is a significant and necessary expenditure for dairies. Make the most of your investment by raising the right number of quality heifers.

By Dr. Kendra Wells, Valley Veterinary Clinic
In basketball, offense is when you try to score on your opponents, and defense is reacting to them. When raising calves, monitoring certain benchmarks can help us play offense against pathogens that can negatively affect calf health.

By Dr. Lucas Mitchell, Vita Plus calf and heifer specialist
The transition period when a calf is weaned from milk or milk replacer is a stressful time in its life. Follow these five steps to minimize the stress and keep them growing through this period.

By Brandon Scharping, Lena Veterinary Clinic
Pink eye is a painful disease for livestock and a frustrating disease for cattle producers. Although prevention can be difficult, various preventative health and management factors can reduce the risk of pink eye in your herd.

With Gar-Lin Dairy Farm’s group calf feeders, it was difficult to find a place to treat sick calves. As a result, they designed this calf treatment cart to make it easier to move and treat sick calves.

By Dr. Kevin Ratka, Vita Plus dairy specialist
When it comes to colostrum quality, it is not only the amount of antibodies present in the colostrum that matters, but also the hygiene of the colostrum being fed. Colostrum needs to be clean to achieve healthy calves.

By Dr. Jenn Rowntree, Alta Genetics associate veterinarian
Failure to provide a clean, well-managed maternity area can lead to calves ingesting manure laden with E. coli, which can then travel to and infect the bloodstream. This is can lead to infection in one or multiple joints.

In this edition of Calf Chat, Ann Hoskins visits Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy to discuss their winter calf care protocols and "neonatal intensive care unit." 

By Jon Rasmussen, Vita Plus dairy technology specialist
As computer herd management programs improve, calf raisers have the opportunity to define what information needs to be recorded that can help treat calves and identify strategies for improvement.

By Dr. Jenn Rowntree, Vita Plus calf and heifer specialist
The past two years have both been wet years, which is often associated with an increased risk for bovine respiratory disease in cattle of all ages. Consider these strategies to improve gut health and overall immune function.

By Dr. Jenn Rowntree, Vita Plus calf and heifer specialist
Vaccines are an important part of any calf raising program, however, we may not be handling them correctly to get the most out of them. Here are five ways to protect vaccine quality. 

By Dr. Kendra Wells, Valley Veterinary Clinic
Diagnosing pneumonia can be difficult because most cases are subclinical. However, using an ultrasound can help view lung lesions and lead to an effective monitoring program.

By Dr. Jennifer Van Os, University of Wisconsin-Madison animal welfare extension specialist
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and extension educators are seeking U.S. dairy producers or calf raisers, along with bovine veterinary practitioners, to participate in an online survey as part of a study on animal care practices for preweaned dairy calves. Participating producers can choose to enter a random drawing to win a refractometer and $100 Vita Plus gift voucher or other prize.