Don’t miss out on the exciting lineup at this year’s Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (DCHA) conference being held April 11-13 in Madison, Wisconsin.

When T.J. McClure joined a start-up dairy heifer operation in the heart of beef cattle country during the devastating dairy down cycle of 2009, people thought he had lost his mind.

Heifers raised on pasture not only cost you less to raise, they are also healthier and give more milk, according to Jennifer Blazek, a dairy and livestock educator with the University of Wisconsin, and Adam Abel, an NRCS soil conservationist.

Editor’s note: This article is part one in a three-part series on evaluating your hygiene protocols. Visit 5 steps to perfect cleanliness to read part two and Are your calves secure? 7 ways to make it so to read part three. In this time of lower milk prices, every penny counts, and many producers have “hunkered down” and decided not to make any large investments this year.

There are no shortcuts when it comes to raising healthy dairy heifer calves. Strict hygiene of facilities and personnel is a must, as are:

Feeding water to nursery calves can often cause frustration for producers. Water intake by nursery calves is dynamic and has a degree of variability, making it a little difficult to judge how much water they will drink.

Thinking of feeding pasteurized waste milk to your calves? It can be an excellent choice, both nutritionally and economically. But on its own, pasteurized waste milk does not deliver the complete package necessary to feed all the calves in your herd to their greatest potential.

Over the last decade, research has consistently shown average daily gain (ADG) improves when milk or milk replacer is fed at rates providing more than 1.0 pounds of solids per day. Liquid feeding programs encouraging intakes greater than 2.0 pounds of solids per day have been promoted by several university research groups and feed companies in order to provide more “biologically appropriate” nutrition.

Your calves deserve the best of both worlds – milk feeding balanced to deliver the right amount of milk nutrients and fresh calf starter that will contribute to their future as a ruminant.