Picture this: A cow is calving on a cold January night. After a few hours, a beautiful heifer calf is born. The calf has one job: to stay healthy. I have one job: to keep her that way.

Dairy farms historically raised pre-weaned calves in hutches or individual pens. This made feedings easier, allowed for individual monitoring and curbed disease outbreaks. As more farms transition to group housing, this traditional method is being challenged.

Nutrition of dairy heifers is often talked about as a whole without referring to the age and growth stage of the heifer. Even though there is a lot of focus placed on feeding milk-fed calves, little research information is available regarding the best strategies for feeding post-weaned dairy heifers.

Mixing milk replacers for winter feeding of dairy calves The total nutrients consumed by pre-weaned calves affects their average daily gain (ADG). What is even more intriguing is some evidence that the calf’s ADG before weaning impacts its first-lactation milk yield.

Dairy calves are the future of your herd. In addition to excellent nutrition, high-quality facilities and veterinary care, give calves the greatest opportunity to meet their future potential by having the infrastructure necessary for employees to perform up to their potential.

Calves are routinely raised in single pens until weaning or even longer, but housing milk-fed calves in pairs or groups is increasing in popularity. This, in part, is due to the availability of automatic feeders and the potential of reducing labor requirements per head.

Cow 7250 delivered a healthy heifer calf yesterday. Cow 7250 looks good – her eyes look alert, she’s eating fairly well, and she shows no signs of discomfort. Her temperature is normal and, from all outward appearances, she seems ready to begin her next lactation without incident.

Check out scenes from the 2016 Dairy Strong event that brought more than 600 people to Madison, Wisconsin, Jan. 12-14.

As technology in the dairy industry expands, so do the abilities of producers to prevent disease and monitor herd health. In light of these advances, what role will the next generation of veterinarians serve on commercial dairies?

Raising replacement heifers is one of the most costly aspects of a dairy farm. Heifers don’t bring a return for two years or more until they enter the milking string. They are also the future of the dairy herd, and without them, the dairy wouldn’t last long.