Equipment

By Ann Hoskins, Vita Plus calf program manager Years of research prove the immense, long-term impact high-quality colostrum has on the health and performance of calves – the future of your herd. 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.

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. 

In this edition of Calf Chat, Dr. Lucas Mitchell provides his spring calf care checklist to help calf raisers prepare equipment and facilities for the upcoming change in seasons.

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.

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 Dave Chamberlin, Vita Plus swine technical sales manager, and Garrett Rozeboom, Vita Plus swine technical services manager
Although we focus on animals with only one stomach, many of the practices we use to manage pigs translate across species. These are our top five rules for managing ventilation in swine barns.

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 Ann Hoskins, Vita Plus calf products coordinator
As technology delivers more and more details, it’s easy to forget all the little things along the way. Here are eight things you should check to make sure your autofeeder is functioning properly.

It is critical to have water at the right temperature to clean equipment, mix milk or colostrum replacers, and feed calves. To assist with this task, Mark Buning of Buning Dairy LLC installed a water temperature valve on his water system.

By Ann Hoskins, Vita Plus calf products coordinator
When a pasteurizer is working properly, it will destroy 98% to 99% of bacteria. Follow these five steps to make sure your pasteurizer is doing the job you need it to do.

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.

Refrigerated or frozen colostrum must be carefully thawed and warmed before it is fed to a calf to preserve immunoglobulins. Producers can easily build their own colostrum thawing and heating unit to accomplish this task.

Using a Camelbak brush to clean esophageal feeder tubes has made life easier for the team at Schilling Farms LLC.

In this edition of Calf Chat, Dr. Noah Litherland discusses the goals of ventilation systems and how seasonal changes can influence those goals.  

Using an expandable folder that is prepacked with everything needed to process newborn calves has made life easier for the team at Birchen Farms Inc.

Using a wheelbarrow to move and weigh newborn calves has helped make life easier for Katie Grinstead and her team at Vir-Clar Farms.