In 2000 and 2004, Wright Place Farm in Clinton, Maine, decided to grow by buying neighboring farms. In 2012, Brian Wright challenged his brother Steve and uncle Ray, who co-own the 800-cow, 1,800-acre dairy with him, to increase production by improving the herd and facilities instead of buying another farm.

Many calves show subtle signs of sickness before it becomes clinical. The “look, listen, smell and feel” strategy will help you identify those calves much earlier and can be used in all calf-raising systems. The key is to closely observe calves in the moment without making assumptions or overlooking small signs.

Every dairy farm is different. But when it comes to calf programs, there may be more similarities than what might be expected. At the 2018 Leading Dairy Producers Conference, hosted by Purina Animal Nutrition, three dairy farmers shared what makes their individual calf programs successful.

Scours is the primary cause of calf death before weaning. It can be a devastating disease infecting many animals, resulting in expensive treatments and negatively impacting the animal’s long-term health and performance.

Consistency is a foremost principle for success in raising calves. Unfortunately, calf producers who use a Brix refractometer in an effort to maintain consistent milk replacer concentration are wasting their time.

Calf scours is one of the most important and costly calf health issues affecting dairy operations in North America. According to the USDA, scours, diarrhea and other digestive problems are responsible for more than half of all pre-weaned heifer calf deaths.

A strong heifer nutrition program is a multi-phase process geared toward optimizing animal growth and development. While there’s no one-size-fits-all program every farm or calf ranch must adopt, the most successful heifer raisers have a few things in common, including:

A fast time is crucial to winning a race. Newborn calf care is a lot like a race: The faster you get quality colostrum in calves, the sooner they’ll start to build immunity through antibodies known as immunoglobulins.

Current regulations, which went into effect in January 2017, require a prescription to feed calves certain antibiotics in milk replacer. Prior to the change in regulations, some calf growers fed certain antibiotics in milk replacer for the entire pre-weaning period.

Observing dairy calf behavior is a critical skill in the early detection of disease. Dr. Sheila McGuirk from the University of Wisconsin published an excellent health scoring publication guide (Calf Health Scoring Guide) used by many calf raisers, veterinarians and researchers to aid in disease detection.