“For years and years, we’ve all known the very best thing for a sick cow is to receive healthy rumen fluid,” says Bernie Mulder, founder of Drench-Mate. Yet, until now, there hasn’t been an easy way to obtain that fluid.

There are many things dairy producers do every day to keep cows healthy and productive, but there may be nothing more important than focusing on the first two hours when a calf is born. A recent article in the Journal of Dairy Science evaluated factors affecting passive transfer in heifer calves and how this related to the time of first insemination. Their findings continue to tell us how important colostrum and the transfer of immunity is to a calf’s life.

Progressive Dairyman recently reached out to several industry researchers to provide up-to-date information about automatic calf feeding. Roundtable participants include: Tom Earleywine, technical services director for Land O’Lakes Animal Milk Products, who recently gave a presentation on automatic calf feeding at the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Conference Mike Van Amburgh, associate professor of animal science at Cornell University, where the dairy research herd utilizes an automatic calf feeder Miriam Weber Nielsen, professor of dairy management and physiology at Michigan State University, who provided tips for raising calves with automatic feeders at the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference