“What you put into those calves, you’re going to get out as 2-year-olds,” Cricket Jacquier, owner of Laurelbrook Farm, says. “I’m convinced of that. You can’t have a hiccup along the way.”

For Dr. Luke Miller, the farm manager at Vierra Dairy Farm in Hilmar, California, the answer is yes; cloud-based data storage is right for their dairy. Although the process is not complete yet, Miller has been busy transitioning the 2,000-cow dairy over from DairyComp to the cloud.

This year, the International Agri-Center’s (IAC) World Ag Expo embarked on a new adventure by hosting guided school tours on Thursday, Feb. 12. The tours were about two hours long and lasted from 9 a.m. to noon; after which, attendees were free to tour the grounds on their own.

Down cows are a fact of life for any dairy owner. Although down cow incidents may be reduced through high-quality care and good facilities, they will never be fully eliminated. To deal with this issue, Gordon and Cathy Speirs, the owners of Shiloh Dairy in Brillion, Wisconsin, have not only laid out set protocols for their employees to follow, but they have a rubber-lined bucket dedicated to the task.

Dec. 9-11, 2014, marked the 20th annual Vita Plus Dairy Summit. More than 200 producers and industry professionals were in attendance. The event, held in Red Wing, Minnesota, kicked off with farm tours to Clay View Dairy, Fetzer Farms and Son-Bow Inc. At each stop, attendees were able to tour the operation, ask questions and learn about practices and innovations the owners of each dairy used on their operation and why.

Scouring is one of the common diseases that will affect a calf. It is well-known that keeping calves healthy can have a major impact on their future production. Stellar calf-care protocols can help to reduce the number of sick calves, but the reality is, no matter how well the calves are cared for, some of them will always scour.

As any producer knows, a healthy calf grows into a healthy heifer. Healthy heifers will have fewer problems and are more likely to reach their genetic potential. Every little bit counts when it comes to keeping calves healthy. One way some producers are giving their calves an extra edge is by feeding them whole-egg antibodies for the first three weeks of their life.