Weight gain. Two words that strike fear in humans – unless they’re talking about calves. It’s well documented a healthy calf should, at a minimum, double their birthweight before weaning, but the scale doesn’t tell the whole story and, sometimes, it can be misleading.

Are your calves healthy? How do you know? You probably have a general picture of calf health on your farm, but putting pen to paper and tracking the numbers can give you accurate data to watch trends and make changes quickly.

Gone are the days of feeding calves 2 quarts of milk or milk replacer twice a day, but while feeding higher levels of nutrition is the new industry norm, there’s still room to improve.

The beauty of automatic calf feeders is: They allow you to increase intakes without increasing meal size or labor. However, you can’t simply install the technology and walk away.

We might not want to admit it, but winter will be here before we know it. And for most of the country, this means plunging temperatures, bringing cold stress and increased maintenance needs for young calves.

High-quality nutrition isn’t just a goal to shoot for in your calf-feeding program; it’s a necessity when it comes to raising healthy, productive calves.

As the saying goes, good things come in small packages. This is especially true when it comes to raising Jersey calves. Just because they are small in stature doesn’t mean we should short-change Jersey calves on nutritional intake.

Research continues to show feeding more nutrition can help calves reach their full potential. And, while the dairy industry has moved away from the old standard of feeding calves 2 quarts of milk or milk replacer twice a day, misconceptions remain. Below are six common calf nutrition myths:

In just a few months, the use of medically important feed-grade antibiotics on your dairy will require veterinarian authorization. When the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) takes effect on Jan. 1, 2017, the classification of these medications will change from over-the-counter status to VFD designation.

Although the term “nutritional scours” is often thrown around in today’s dairy industry, what many calf raisers might diagnose as nutritional scours is likely the result of common misperceptions surrounding nutrition inputs and manure outputs. Below are six common scours myths: