With nine essential nutrients and 1 gram of protein per ounce, milk provides outstanding nourishment with every sip. Perfected by nature over millennia, milk and its byproducts have long been studied by nutritionists and food scientists alike.

Many calf raisers have placed great emphasis on weight gain, measuring success by average daily gain and doubling birthweight in the first 56 to 60 days. While weight gain is important, it doesn’t always equate to structural growth.

Feed and labor. These are usually the two biggest items on dairy producers’ minds when they think about their cost of production. What they might not think about as often is the cost of replacement heifers. Between feed, labor, production, capital and overhead costs, herd owners have reported spending between $1,533 and $2,628 for each heifer raised.

Old dairy barns can look pretty attractive for baby calves. They are “warmer” than hutches and protect the calves as well as the caretakers from the elements. While this might be true, take the time to work through the answers to a few questions before you renovate to ensure the barn will provide a good environment for your calves.

Many dairies and calf ranches report show-stopping results for growth and health when raising calves on whole milk. In fact, nearly half of all dairy calves raised in the U.S. are fed a ration containing whole milk during at least part of the pre-weaning stage.

What sets farms with great calf health apart from those that struggle to get calves started? Sanitation. It is a bigger investment of time than money and is certainly near the top of the list of important criteria for getting calves off to a good start.

Abomasal bloat is a condition commonly found in the dairy and beef industries, but certain situations have increased the number of these cases in young calves in the past five to 10 years.

Raising heifers can be a challenging business, especially when you’re doing it for someone else. Not only do you have young, vulnerable calves to raise, you have calves with the added stress of being shipped from the dairy to your operation, and you need to make sure you pick up right where they left off.

When Amy Shiplett joined her family’s operation full time in 2006, she struggled to find detailed information on raising calves and heifers from local resources, but through an online search, she stumbled across an organization that fulfilled her needs.

1. Describe your farm. PETERS: My parents, Jeff and Janet Peters, brother (Cole) and I own and operate a dairy farm in northwestern Pennsylvania called Spruce Row Farm.