Previous posts at Calf Sessions have presented ideas on ramping up your calf feeding program during winter cold stress1. I recently combined those feed management ideas with basic environmental management in a movie format: Winterize Your Calf Feeding Program. The… Continue Reading
As of January 1, 2017, any medically important antibiotic is subject to the feed directive rule and will require either a Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) form for feed-delivered antibiotics or a veterinary prescription for water delivered antibiotics. The overall goal… Continue Reading
Nutritional Support Coupled with Heat Stress Abatement Can Improve Animal Performance The conversation about environmental heat stress on dairy cows usually focuses on early lactation where it has serious effects on feed intake, milk production, health and reproductive performance. Heat… Continue Reading
I recently had the opportunity and privilege to work with True Farms in New York, documenting their transition from an acidified waste milk feeding system for calves to a computerized feeding system where they feed milk replacer. The folks at… Continue Reading
Anyone who has spent time taking photos or shooting video footage often finds when they get home from a camera outing, a sizable collection of images on their SD card that just missed the mark — especially action shots. The… Continue Reading
When we think of automatic feeding systems for milk replacer, we probably envision groups of calves where each calf walks to a stall or feeding station to receive programmed allotments of milk replacer throughout the day. An automatic feeder can… Continue Reading
Animal plasma is a unique protein source that provides functional proteins. These functional proteins contain biologically active albumin and globulin proteins. They also contain immunoglobulins such as IgG which are important antibodies that circulate in plasma. It is a highly… Continue Reading
~ updated on August 15, 2017. Milk replacer characteristics can influence how it interacts with automatic calf feeders. These interactions affect how the milk replacer behaves in the feeder and may also affect calf performance. This post explores how the… Continue Reading
~ updated August 14, 2017. As environmental temperatures decrease, a calf’s need for energy increases. Calves need between 1.0 and 1.3% more energy for each degree the environmental temperature drops below 50° F. Below this temperature, calves must increase heat… Continue Reading
~updated on August 12, 2017. What could be easier than mixing a bit of powder in water, right? If it were only that simple… When it comes to mixing milk replacer and feeding it to calves there are a surprising… Continue Reading