Calf Management & Health Managing

Are you a calf manager or a calf feeder?

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Are you a calf manager or a calf feeder? First, let’s start with some definitions.  The calf feeder is the person who does their job.   They aren’t recognized for either great or poor calf care.  It’s a “low ranking” job on the farm.  A calf manager sets goals, analyzes data, evaluates their resources and allocates […]

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Calf Management & Health

Calves and heat stress

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Calves and heat stress It’s only May, but it’s time to prepare for heat stress.   There are several key points to address. Start with the dry cow.  Research in Florida has shown that calves born from “cooled” cows were more efficient in absorbing colostrum IgG, had higher birth weights, greater survival to 1st lactation and […]

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Calf Management & Health

Weaning calves successfully!

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Weaning calves successfully! Feeding and managing preweaned calves is expensive on a per day basis. Fortunately, it’s a relatively short time in the life of the calf and a minor percentage of total rearing expenses.    Traditionally, the goal for preweaned calf management has been to encourage rumen development and early weaning to reduce these expenses […]

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Calf Management & Health

Water is important!

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Water is important! Often we pay attention to small details in our feeding management of calves and overlook “simple” things of great importance! This is the case with water, regardless of whether you manage calves in individual pens or group housing. The fundamental recommendation is simple.  Provide plenty of fresh, clean water at all times […]

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Managing

Keeping it clean!!

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Keep it clean!! Our discussions pertaining to calf management frequently focus on nutrition, milk or milk replacer, colostrum, vaccinations, feed additives…….  Rarely do we consider the impact of hygiene on our success in raising calves.   For this post, let’s consider the impact of hygiene on calf health and growth. Calving environment  –  While in utero […]

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Calf Management & Health

What have “autofeeders” taught me about feeding dairy calves?

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What have “autofeeders” taught me about feeding dairy calves? Most of us that have fed calves have a similar impression of “what’s normal” for feeding calves and calf behavior.  What was “normal”? We fed them twice a day. We fed two quarts (liters) per feeding. We did this because milk or milk replacer was expensive […]

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