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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
When is the best time to introduce calves to the autofeeder? There are two views to consider when making this decision. Traditionally it’s been highly recommended to keep calves housed individually for health reasons. Typically, calves have some mild scours sometime during the first 10 days of life, likely due to delays in development of […]
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 […]
Smart Calf Rearing Conference This is the second installment on the proceedings of the 2023 Smart Calf Rearing Conference. Check the calf blog for the first one if you haven’t already read it. This installment features a summary of the presentations in Nutrition, Behavior and Sustainability of our Calf Management Systems. Nutrition Dr. Michael Steele […]
Smart Calf Rearing Conference Scientists, dairy industry personnel and calf growers recently gathered in Germany for 3rd Smart Calf Rearing Conference and the first since 2019. The conference began with the Nuemuhler Calf Practice Day hosted by hofgut neumuhle near Munchweiler. This program was attended by over two hundred people with a program focused on […]
Calf immunity #3 – Optimizing absorption and achieving the benefits of colostrum *Post contributed by Julia Hamann, D.V.M., Field Technical Specialist Diamond V This is the last of the three-part series by Dr. Hamann. Check out the first two blog posts if you haven’t done so already! Calf immunity #1 – The three components of […]
Calf immunity #2 – Colostrum and the calf’s gastrointestinal development *Post contributed by Julia Hamann, D.V.M., Field Technical Specialist Diamond V This is the second of the three-part series by Dr. Hamann. Check out the first blog post if you haven’t done so already! Colostrum plays a significant role in the calf’ intestinal development and […]
Calf immunity #1 – What is it and how do we optimize it in the preweaned calf? *Post contributed by Julia Hamann, D.V.M., Field Technical Specialist Diamond V We are pleased to present a three part series on how to optimize immunity in the preweaned calf contributed by Dr. Julia Hamann, Field Technical Services Veterinary […]
