Editor’s note: This is the second of two articles about managing the maternity area and newborn calves using a team approach. Click here to read the first article "Putting more 'Ma' in your maternity: The cow's perspective".

When you hear the word “transition,” do you automatically think of your pre- and post-fresh cows? Most dairymen do, but there’s another important transition group that requires your attention. That group is made up of calves transitioning off milk and onto a diet made up of dry feeds.

Change. Not many people like it. In fact, there are hundreds of books, podcasts and seminars all dedicated to the topic of “embracing change.”

Myths – we’ve all heard them. Bulls hate red, salt helps water boil faster, you shouldn’t wake a sleepwalker, and on and on and on …

Recent research done at the University of Guelph identified over 26 percent of male calves had a significantly enlarged navel with heat, pain, moisture or malodorous discharge when examined at arrival to a veal facility.

Think about the healthiest cows in your herd. What defines them as your healthiest? Is it their older age? Is it the fact they’ve never had mastitis?

Imagine yourself on the Autobahn. There is no speed limit, so you can drive as fast as you desire. What car would you want to drive? Would you feel comfortable driving your current car at max speed?

Technology has changed how the herd is managed and decisions are made at Reuter Dairy in Peosta, Iowa, where Dan Reuter and his father, Rick, milk 900 cows with a 32,000-pound average and a somatic cell count (SCC) averaging 80,000 over the last 10 years.

That semen tank sitting in the corner of the barn office or vet room generally goes unnoticed except for the times you are pulling out a dose of semen from one of your favorite sires.

Over the last decade, we have seen significant changes in the dairy industry, including the adaptation of new technologies and management of reproduction and genetics: