Calves & Heifers

Current regulations, which went into effect in January 2017, require a prescription to feed calves certain antibiotics in milk replacer. Prior to the change in regulations, some calf growers fed certain antibiotics in milk replacer for the entire pre-weaning period.

A fast time is crucial to winning a race. Newborn calf care is a lot like a race: The faster you get quality colostrum in calves, the sooner they’ll start to build immunity through antibodies known as immunoglobulins.

A strong heifer nutrition program is a multi-phase process geared toward optimizing animal growth and development. While there’s no one-size-fits-all program every farm or calf ranch must adopt, the most successful heifer raisers have a few things in common, including:

Calf scours is one of the most important and costly calf health issues affecting dairy operations in North America. According to the USDA, scours, diarrhea and other digestive problems are responsible for more than half of all pre-weaned heifer calf deaths.

The beauty of automatic calf feeders is: They allow you to increase intakes without increasing meal size or labor. However, you can’t simply install the technology and walk away.

Snow will soon blanket many areas of the country, and temperatures will dip below freezing if they haven’t already. Use these practical tips to make sure your calves are ready for the cold.