Calf Management & Health

Weaning calves successfully!

water drink

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 […]

CONTINUE READING
Calf Management & Health

Water is important!

headline

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 […]

CONTINUE READING
Managing

Keeping it clean!!

4

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 […]

CONTINUE READING
Calf Management & Health

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

216 - mxmphoto®1_-194

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 […]

CONTINUE READING