Disease Transmission and Co-Mingling Animals
One of the main diseases that I feel is impacting dairies has been Salmonella, especially S. Heidelberg. There is no known treatment as it seems to be resistant to a number of antimicrobial products. Therefore, any infected calves should receive supportive care, always continue to feed milk and provide electrolyte therapy. So, lets discuss how […]
The Importance of Calf Movement
Whether you are transporting calves across a pen or several miles/hours down the road it is a very stressful time in a newborn calves life. First thing you want to consider is securing an acceptable method for moving calves, sled, wheelbarrow, calf cart or even a UTV/truck. 1) Lift the calf into the trailer and […]
Effects on the Esophageal Groove
When a calf swallows, solid food such as starter grain moves down the esophagus and passes through an opening called the esophageal groove just before it enters the rumen. Prior to weaning, milk and milk replacer take a different route. Factors such as suckling, anticipation and a variety of sensual and neural stimuli cause muscles […]
Nipples vs. Pails – Which is Better For You
Have you really observed how a calf suckles from Mom? Moms’ udder isn’t always the best position for a calf to suckle from but they do it. So why are we concerned about rumen function and “rumen drinkers”? Bottle feeding vs. pail feeding of calves is always an interesting and sometimes passionate subject. There are advantages to […]
Cold Weather Is On the Way!
Cold weather and supportive care to the newborn calf. Wow, how did we get to October already? Seems like life is picking up speed every year as I get older so here we are again talking cold weather and supportive care to the newborn calf. If we talk about the thermoneutral zone which refers to […]
Calf Basics on Nutrition
If you ever heard one of my presentations, I am a firm believer in the 6C’s of Calf Raising. I stand firm on these fundamentals. Obviously, we are only touching on the nutrition portion of the 6C’s in this month’s blog. After the first few feedings of Colostrum, we start to focus on our calves […]
Let’s Talk Heat Stress in Calves
Whether your calves are in hutches, individual pens or a group setting. Calves will experience heat stress this summer. High temperatures can be strenuous to calves, even more than cold temperatures. When the temperatures gets above 73°F, calves can experience heat stress. The humidity level also plays a role in heat stress, the higher the humidity, […]
Measuring Bacteria Levels in The Milk We Feed Our Calves
So you may ask, why this topic? First, you can’t measure what you don’t know. If we feed milk that may be contaminated with bacteria, we could potentially set our calves up for severe scour days or even death. We need to measure the amount of bacteria that made it through the pasteurization (PA) cycle […]
Bio Security and Young Calves
Bio security and calves can be a tough one, as who doesn’t like playing with baby calves on a dairy farm? It can go multiple directions when discussing biosecurity, do you invite a class room of elementary students out for a visit or it can be employees moving from barn to barn. I am going to […]
Fly Control and Sanitation Basics
Let’s talk FLY CONTROL. Why in March you ask, because this is when we need to get a grip on it, before it actually gets started. So, lets start by asking ourselves, did last year’s fly control program work? How did you measure that process, or did you do like I did and evaluate it […]