Summer’s warmth and sunshine should spell carefree days for young nursing calves, with pastures coming to life and the stresses of harsher weather in the past. Yet, behind this idyllic curtain, the threat of summer pneumonia lies in wait, ready to challenge newborns’ health and well-being.

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When silage analyses show atypical acid profiles or pH behavior, the assumption is often that fermentation failed. In most cases, fermentation occurred, but microbial activity was redirected by moisture, substrate availability or oxygen dynamics.

Immune-based biologics are a solution with the potential to reduce (and perhaps eliminate) antibiotics use across dairy farms worldwide and ultimately mitigate the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

Through our experience of working with numerous dairies to troubleshoot early calf health challenges, we’ve identified several critical, nonnegotiable colostrum management practices.

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most urgent global health threats and development challenges scientists face today. And dairy is responding with stewardship and materials that advance our industry’s interests in combating the threat.

For many dairies, use of premixes is nothing new and they have been used in some fashion since dairying began. In many cases, however, because the practice is so common, we may tend to forget these are tools in our feeding programs that need to be reevaluated from time to time.

Dried manure solids are one of the most common bedding materials used on dairies today. Farms choose to use them because they also have several distinct advantages over other bedding types. However, no management decision comes without trade-offs, and farms using dried manure solids bedding must take steps to minimize their potential disadvantages.

In agriculture, rain typically poses two major pain points: challenges to field traffic and harvesting timelines.

When an antibiotic is administered, susceptible bacteria may be eliminated, allowing resistant bacteria to thrive and become dominant. This can make the antibiotic ineffective for future treatments and can therefore increase the risk of infections persisting in the afflicted animal and spreading to other animals in the herd, or to humans.