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Like young humans, calves are more susceptible to bacterial infections than their adult counterparts.
And just as you wouldn’t serve your children’s dinner on a dirty plate or allow them to sleep in dirty beds, it’s important for calf-feeding operations to ensure that proper sanitation methods are in place to prevent calves from being exposed to potentially harmful contaminants in their food or bedding.
New data confirms that contaminated colostrum impairs calves. How can you get a cleaner colostrum? Calves from different dairies, even after they’ve been transferred to a custom raising facility, often have different destinies.
Cow comfort is an all-encompassing term, which includes almost everything we do on a dairy farm.
When we really think about the whole picture, every minute detail has an influence on the comfort of the cow.
As an example, the location of the facilities is a major consideration.
Our progressive panel is back this issue to discuss manure handling on their respective operations. These producers have previously discussed calf and heifer raising and A.I. and breeding in Progressive Dairyman. New to this issue’s panel is Eric Risser, representing Meadow Vista Farms. Eric oversees nutrient management on the 750-cow operation.
The choice of freestall base and bedding is a critical decision and should reflect management style and goals. Sand is the gold standard for a freestall base and bedding. Maintaining a bed of loose sand, six inches minimum in depth, enhances cow comfort, improves lying time, contributes to good udder health/ clean cows and improves cow footing.
This article was #16 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2013. It was published in the January 21, 2013 print issue. Click here for the full list of the Top 25.
Debunking the myth that sand bedding cannot be used on a farm with an anaerobic digester, we profiled the digester system (including sand separation equipment) at Central Sands Dairy. While the farm is keeping 99 percent of sand from the entering the digester, Adam Onan, a manager at the dairy, said one downside is getting the separated sand dry.
Farm parents mentor their children – working side by side. And generations mature, as one teaches the other how to work with cows and the land. What dairy farm dad or mom has not been asked by friends, “Do you think one of the kids will take over the farm? Do you think they’ll keep the cows?” We teach, they learn, and the farm goes on.
Right after Christmas, the store windows fill up with hearts, cupids and flowers attracting lovers to remember their one-and-only. Valentines, chocolate candy and pajama-gram commercials fill the airways and the Internet. It is a free-for-all of expectations of what a lover is to do to prove never-ending affection.
There are various theories on how they came about, depending on what coffee machine in Canaseraga you were leaning on and what old-timer you were talking to. Some would say they’re hippies who had moved into the woods and gone native. Others think they’re offspring of Bigfoot.
