Calf and heifer nutrition

In this edition, Dr. Lucas Mitchell, Vita Plus dairy calf and heifer specialist, discusses water's role in calf health and growth, and suggests strategies to efficiently provide water in the winter. Visit our YouTube channel for more calf chat segments.

By Dr. Noah Litherland, Vita Plus dairy technical services Respiratory disease is one of the primary challenges to successful heifer calf development. Maintaining intestinal integrity (protecting the gut) appears to be one path to protecting the lungs and decreasing respiratory disease risk. Thus, one goal of calf nutrition is to maintain intestinal integrity.

In this edition, Ann Hoskins, Vita Plus calf program manager, walks us through two simple strategies to ensure your high-temp or batch pasteurizer is doing the job it is meant to do.

By Dr. Noah Litherland, Vita Plus dairy technical services specialist Studying the composition of milk solids intake and calf growth helps us better understand how our feeding program decisions impact efficiency of calf growth. Growth is dependent upon calf health, environment, nutrient intake and composition of nutrients consumed. Rarely has calf growth from milk or milk replacer nutrition been compared within the same study. In this article, I used the NRC calf growth model to calculate calf grwoth across milk replacer and milk replacer programs.

Pebble Knolls Dairy LLC in Brandon, Wisconsin, is owned and operated by Eric and Danielle Wetzel and Eric’s parents, Richard and Gail Wetzel.  Eric and Danielle’s daughter, Karsyn, began working as the farm’s calf manager three years ago.  As she learns the ins and outs of raising healthy calves, Karsyn continues the farm’s decade-long tradition of mob-feeding calves in group pens.

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

It’s not often that farmers completely start over on the same farm where they grew up, but that’s exactly what brothers Sam and Matt Redetzke are doing at Redetzkes’ No Joke Dairy, LLC in Stratford, Wisconsin.  In 2015, Sam and Matt decided they wanted to start milking on their family farm.  Today, they milk 190 cows and about 75% of the herd is Jerseys.

By Dr. Noah Litherland, dairy technical services specialist
Heat stress can have significant impacts on dairy calf health and growth.  Here are eight action items to reduce the negative impacts of summer heat.

By Ann Hoskins, Vita Plus calf products manager
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.  Here are common signs of dehydration at different levels of severity.

Hickory Lawn Dairy in Cascade, Wisconsin, developed a technique to track starter grain intake simply and effectively by placing a piece of tape on the door of each calf hutch.  As starter grain intake increases, the calf manager circles the number of cups the calf should be fed daily. 

By Dr. Lucas Mitchell, Vita Plus calf and heifer specialist
It's a two-step process to introduce forages to calves. First, we need to "turn" them into ruminants, then we need to let them be ruminants. Forages may play a role in the first part, and they certainly play a role in the second part.

The key to growing healthy calves is consistency. To help feed calves more consistently, the calf team at Wilbar Dairy started weighing water and milk replacer a few years ago.

In this edition of Calf Chat, Dr. Noah Litherland discusses common milk replacer ingredients and how to read a milk replacer tag.

By Donovan Nelson, Vita Plus quality assurance and formulation specialist
Quality calf feeds can’t be made without quality ingredients and manufacturing processes. Make sure your feed manufacturer has protocols like these in place to produce the excellent calf feed your calves deserve.

By Dr. Lucas Mitchell, Vita Plus calf and heifer specialist
The easiest way to know if we are feeding calves the proper amount of milk is by paying attention to how they perform. Look for these five indicators the next time you walk through the calf barn.