A newborn calf is the most vulnerable animal on a dairy. Born with an immature immune system, the calf can’t effectively handle pathogen challenges in the environment until 3 to 4 weeks old. In the meantime, young calves are bombarded with a host of stressors and disease-causing pathogens.

It’s one of those moments on the dairy that makes all the stress and worry dissipate. As the still damp newborn heifer tries once, twice and finally succeeds on the third attempt to stand, there’s an overwhelming feeling of hope and optimism for the future.

Raising replacement heifers is one of the largest investments made on a dairy. The costs associated with heifer raising can represent up to 20 percent of milk production costs, making this line item the second- or third-largest expense for an operation, after feed and possibly labor.

A strong heifer nutrition program is a multi-phase process geared toward optimizing animal growth and development. While there’s no one-size-fits-all program every farm or calf ranch must adopt, the most successful heifer raisers have a few things in common, including:

The most successful calf programs begin with this end objective in mind: healthy, productive animals ready to enter the milking string in a timely fashion.

A sound nutrition program grounded in research-proven ingredients forms the foundation for success and helps dairies achieve productivity goals.

For dairy managers dealing with metabolic issues during transition, subclinical hypocalcemia (SCH) can be one of the more frustrating challenges to overcome. It’s one of those issues you know exists, but the extent is often unclear and the impact unknown.

Properly formulated transition cow rations are an integral part of transition period success. Producers and nutritionists often spend a good deal of attention to getting these diets just right and then adjusting as necessary. However, the best ration in the world does no good if animals do not receive it. When troubleshooting rations, it’s not uncommon to find that transition cows and first-calf heifers do not receive the rations as nutritionists and managers intended.