Dr. Neil Michael has built his career on improving dairy cow reproduction and nutrition, and in his new role as president of the Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council, he looks forward to continuing the organization’s efforts to translate scientific research into applied solutions at the farm level.

The following individuals were among the finalists selected last year for the 40 Under 40 in Agriculture Awards. More than 200 individuals were nominated for the award, and the winners were chosen based on their leadership and commitment to advancing the cause to double food production by 2050. We asked a few of the winners who have ties to the dairy industry to talk about their current work and their thoughts on global milk and food production at the start of 2014.

A fortunate start of life is a key factor for long-term productive success. Directly after birth, the newborn calf is challenged by the extra-uterine environment. The birth process can impair the calf’s adaptive capacity. Without additional care, this impairment can have long-term consequences. Newborn calf care to support its adaptive capacity is therefore an essential element of herd health management.

Colostrum is undoubtedly one of the most important feeding practices for newborn calves. Sound, well-communicated protocols are often put into place to ensure successful passive transfer of immunity and a healthy start for the newborn calf. But as time passes and changes are made to the employee team, protocols and attention to detail can fall through the cracks.

There has been a lot written about how feeding more milk replacer will improve the immune system and health of baby calves. Several laboratories have compared feeding calves conventional milk replacers at approximately 1 pound of solids daily to higher levels of nutrition. Higher levels of nutrition were frequently milk replacers that are approximately 28 percent protein fed at approximately 2 pounds of solids daily.

In my dairy farm travels, I find that dairymen have become very well-versed in their lactating herd’s nutrition awareness and many times can even tell me their diet’s estimate of undegraded intake protein. Herds today are very well fed. They have to be fed right to be profitable. However, I find it interesting that when I walk around the side of the barn and pass by the calf hutches, many times the calves seem thin to me. This is regardless of the feed company or nutrition consultant used.

If there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way to start raising calves, Katie Grinstead of Vir-Clar Dairy arguably did it the “best” way.

Better-managed calf barns are beginning to rival outdoor hutches – the long-held gold standard to calf housing. Dr. Ken Nordlund explained that there are three reasons why interest in calf barns is growing: first, to avoid dealing with inclement weather; second, automatic calf feeders are not feasible for hutches; and third, emerging data shows properly ventilated calf barns are providing health results equivalent to hutches.