Calves & Heifers

As costs increase and values decline, how much does it really cost in today’s market to raise a heifer calf from baby on up to 24 months old?

Think of calf rumen development as a journey. Calves transition through nutritional stages – from milk to starter and grower to TMR. What’s being fed at each of those stages impacts rumen development.

Calves are the future of your dairy. Using the tools available to build a calf’s immunity within the first days and weeks of life can help set them up for a lifetime of production. Building an effective vaccination protocol can help calves through times of stress and help them be more resistant to the harmful pathogens encountered throughout life.

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
—Lewis Carroll

Before anything else can happen, the newborn calf requires immediate “best care” to get a great start in life.

You have made a considerable investment in the calf auto-feeder system. But was it worth it? To determine this, focus on these two areas: calf performance and health and labor.

Recently, interest has increased in feeding high levels of milk replacer to calves as research has indicted that greater levels of milk replacer increase pre-weaning average daily gain and future milk production.