Virtual Farm Tour: Every day is a great day to be a calf at Finger Family Farm, LLC

The Finger Family: (left to right) PJ, Alisa, Laura, Phil, Alivia and (not pictured) Alana.

With 120 hutches onsite, the Fingers can keep hutches empty for approximately one month between calves to help minimize disease pressure. The Fingers said they dig out the gravel calf pad every couple of years to further promote cleanliness and control flies.

The farm is involved in the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) Gold Standard Dairy Program, an on-farm evaluation that assesses animal care, environmental stewardship, employee safety and training, and milk safety and quality on family-owned dairy farms. As participants, the Fingers have set clear protocols to ensure optimal calf care and effective communication for employees.

Each hutch on the farm is deep-bedded with straw before a calf moves in. Hutches are rebedded as needed with wheat straw and coarse sawdust to keep calves dry and warm.

In the winter, large round bales placed behind the calf hutches decrease drafts.

“If I need to wear a jacket, the calf wears a jacket,” Laura explained. Calves wear calf jackets until they no longer fit in them. All calf jackets are washed in a commercial washer before they are fitted on new calves.

When calves move to the weaned calf barn, they continue to receive the same starter grain. They are gradually introduced to grass hay and then a heifer TMR. Laura said calves seem to “really take off” once the TMR is introduced.

The weaned calf barn utilizes a positive-pressure ventilation system to ensure adequate airflow and promote air quality.

The calf kitchen attached to the weaned calf barn is a great multi-use space for the Fingers. Remote-controlled doors on both ends of the facility provides easy access. The calf kitchen also has Wi-Fi, a PPE station and exhaust fans.

This sink, arm-mounted hose, and inline water thermometer in the calf kitchen make mixing milk replacer and electrolytes an efficient process.

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.

Phil and Laura Finger are the current owners and managing partners of Finger Family Farm, LLC. The farm milks approximately 500 registered Holsteins. Laura heads up the calf program in addition to several other farm management responsibilities.

Growth and health are the primary focuses of the Fingers’ calf program.

“We do the simple things to keep our calves healthy,” Laura remarked. “Our culture emphasizes cleanliness and economical care of our calves.”

Newborn calf care

Laura prioritizes an ideal environment for calves to support their health and performance, starting at day one. At birth, a calf is removed from the dam, towel-dried and put in an individual warming room bedded with thick sawdust. The calf’s navel is dipped with 7% tincture iodine, and it receives a dose of Tri-Shield^® First Defense.

The dam’s colostrum is collected within the next hour, and the calf is tube-fed a gallon of fresh, warm maternal colostrum or colostrum replacer right away. Esophageal tubes are disinfected after each use and replaced weekly.

“We believe that maternal colostrum fits the needs of the individual calf,” Laura remarked.

The bottom 50% of the dairy herd is bred to conventional beef semen and beef-on-dairy calves are sold approximately 24 hours after birth to a private buyer.  When the operation has an overflow of replacement heifers, they are also sold privately.

“Instead of expanding our herd, this has been an opportunity to supplement our income,” Laura said.

Calf hutches

After spending 24 hours in the warming room, each calf is fitted with a calf jacket in the winter months and moved into an individual hutch with deep straw bedding.

Once calves settle in, they are bottle-fed transition cow milk. At approximately 36 hours after birth, calves transition to Vita Plus Talon, a 25/25 milk replacer. Calves start with 3 quarts of milk per feeding and increase to 1 gallon over 10 days. Bottle holders are used for each feeding for the first 10 days.

“We have been feeding Talon for about five to six years,” Laura said. “For us, it grows a consistent calf.”

The farm’s protocols emphasize correctly measuring milk to deliver a consistent volume at each feeding. After each feeding, bottles and calf feeding equipment are sanitized and dried on a rack.

At two days old, calves are dehorned using paste. At three days old, calves are introduced to water. Every third feeding throughout all seasons of growth, calves are given Vita Plus VitaLyte, an electrolyte supplement, in their water to promote hydration.

“We have found that supplementing water with electrolytes increases water intake in our calves,” Laura said.

At five days old, calves are introduced to grain in a pail. From 10 days to two months old, they are offered a 20% texturized grain starter, water and two milk feedings in a pail per day.

A gradual step-down weaning process

When a calf is 60 days old, Laura begins a step-down weaning process. For approximately two weeks, the amount of milk fed at each feeding is slowly reduced until the calf is weaned. At about 70 days old, the calf is only fed grain and water.

“Having just one or two people feed calves during the calf raising process is extremely important to maintain consistency,” Laura noted. “It keeps the calf eating and avoids any additional stress that could cause it not to grow.”

Laura also emphasized the importance of focusing on calf signals, small or large. Her philosophy is to manage the individual calf throughout each stage of growth to help it be successful.

Calves are housed in hutches for approximately 90 days. The farm utilizes larger hutches to accommodate this larger calf size and thus minimize stress on the calf through the weaning and transition process.

Once calves are ready to leave the hutches, they are given an intranasal vaccine to prevent respiratory disease. Moving 20 calves from the hutches at a time, they are put on a trailer and moved to the weaned calf barn. Four calves are put in a pen and grouped by size, not age, and then begin their journey through the weaned barn. Calves are fed a mix of texturized starter grain and grassy alfalfa hay to start and eventually, they are introduced to a heifer TMR.

Building for the future

The farm’s weaned calf barn was built four years ago.  The previous barn was a retrofitted hog barn. The Fingers worked with an experienced contractor and veterinarian who specializes in facility design to help them think through workflow and design for the greatest efficiency and ease of use.

“We needed a long-lasting, working facility that would support multiple facets of our operation,” Laura said.

Construction was completed in August 2021 and Laura said she and her family most appreciate the calf kitchen attached to the weaned barn. The temperature-regulated environment keeps the farm team out of the elements while completing many calf chores.  In addition to ample storage, the layout allows for feeding equipment to be quickly washed, sanitized and dried.  An example of their ingenuity, Phil and Laura repurposed a support arm from a dental office, found at a re-store, to mount a water hose for easy milk replacer and electrolyte mixing. Furthermore, an inline water thermometer results in a consistent mixing temperature of these liquid feeds.

In addition to its main purpose, Laura and Phil said the calf kitchen has become a place where the family spends time together and employees enjoy team meals.

In the weaned calf barn and throughout all the farm’s facilities, Laura is proactive in controlling flies to protect the health of all animals. The farm’s integrated pest management (IPM) strategy uses several fly control tools to keep calves comfortable and prevent the growth of the fly population.

A culture that values employees

Finger Family Farm has 15 to 20 part-time and full-time employees. Conducting a survey at the change of every season, Laura encourages farm employees to share their perspectives, ideas and challenges.

“I want our employees to have a good experience on our farm,” Laura emphasized. “Employees who are valued are also vested in the interests of your operation. We could not do this without them.”

As Laura reflects on her family’s farm, she said she is happy with how they have structured their calf program and employee experience.

“The biggest takeaway I want people to have from our farm is that we raise healthy calves that grow to be great milk cows on a budget,” Laura remarked. “Our calf growth is a result of our strong emphasis on doing the right thing to get the right result and our teams’ dedication to our calf program.”