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Serious disease, lifelong impact — bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the leading health concerns impacting heifer calves on dairies, even on the best-managed operations. Be armed with these three facts about BRD, and know the signs to watch for should BRD find its way into your herd.
In the early 1800s, Adolf Brix introduced specific gravity measurements as a method to estimate the sugar concentration in liquids. Even today sugar concentration by percentage mass is measured using the Brix refractometer in the beverage industry, including for ripening wine grapes and other juices and beer.
Dr. Lowell T. Midla of Merck Animal Health recently discussed the importance of colostrum and vaccinations in the first three months of a calf’s life in a webinar hosted by the Dairy Calf and Heifer Association.
When it comes to ensuring the future success of a dairy operation, raising good replacement animals is essential. One of the most crucial steps in this process is colostrum management.
Successful colostrum management requires careful attention to cleanliness. Colostrum, while it is still in a healthy cow, should have a bacteria count of essentially zero. However, by the time it gets into the calf, bacteria counts are often very high.
Producers want the best for each calf born on their farm, and feeding high-quality colostrum soon after birth in adequate amounts is key to raising healthy calves.
What’s your dairy cow’s milkfat content? It’s an easy question, right? You likely have milkfat records from generations on your farm and could readily explain how your milk components have changed over the years or pinpoint what management and feeding practices caused reductions or increases in milkfat.
Since dairy calves are born immune-deficient, successful passive transfer of immunoglobulin G (IgG) is essential to protecting calves from any disease challenges they encounter early in life. Successful passive transfer of IgG is defined as when the blood IgG concentration of the calf is equal to or greater than 10 milligrams of IgG per milliliter from 1 to 7 days old.
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