The best way to save on calf starter without sacrificing growth and performance is to limit waste. These seven steps can help you save money on calf starter.

For decades, scours has been on record as the most common cause of death for preweaned dairy calves. Beyond the economic loss from death, scours increases treatment and labor costs, and reduces growth rates, thus affecting future production.

This article is part one in a two-part series on pre-weaned heifer nutrition. Look for part two in a future issue. What is a quality calf-feeding program? For too long, the ideal calf-feeding program has been viewed as one that was low-cost and weaned calves as soon as possible.

Calves are naturally herd animals, but the transition period is often the first time they are grouped with others. This brings about a set of challenges that need specialized attention from calf managers.

Proper barn planning saves time and money. For every decision, it is important to understand its associated ramifications. In calf barns, housing style and pen configuration decisions impact ventilation options, which in turn affects the overall success of the barn.

Gone are the days of feeding calves 2 quarts of milk or milk replacer twice a day, but while feeding higher levels of nutrition is the new industry norm, there’s still room to improve.

Whether we’re talking about a kid with one 4-H calf or a calf ranch with tens of thousands of calves, the key questions about feeding calves are the same. How do you minimize cost of production? What composition of protein and fat milk replacer should we feed? How much should we feed each day? And for how many days should we feed milk?

Heifer raising is a major expense for the U.S. dairy industry, accounting for 15 to 20 percent of the total cost of milk production. Respiratory disease will significantly increase that cost, at up to $16.35 per pre-weaned calf and $2.22 for a weaned calf.

The more we learn about the birth process and what happens when calves enter the world, the more we realize how critical those first moments of life are. Mother Nature does an excellent job of transitioning calves for life outside the womb.

With increased emphasis on early life feeding programs for replacement heifers, the need for more information regarding successful weaning management is clear. More and more dairy farmers are feeding double, and sometimes nearly triple, the milk feeding rates that had been recommended for decades prior.