When you look at the rising cost of replacement heifers, keeping calves healthy and productive before and after arrival is critical to the dairy’s bottom line. Too many calves die from scours each year, which is an expensive problem for dairy producers. According to the National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Dairy 2007 study, diarrhea and other digestive problems accounted for more than 56 percent of pre-weaned heifer deaths.

This article was #25 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2012. to jump to the article. It was published in the January 23, 2012 Extra. Click here for the full list of the Top 25. ImmuCell’s calf specialist Bobbi Brockmann listed the top reasons why immediate immunity is important. Brockmann wrote, “Studies show that calves with inadequate serum IgG concentrations at 24 hours old are 3.2 to 9.5 times more likely to become sick and 5.4 times more likely to die before weaning.” Because this article was so popular, we asked Brockmann:

The health and viability of a newborn calf immediately impacts your profit. Caring for cows prior to calving and at calving time requires patience, keen attention, time, labor and expenses. There are few ways around this, and attention must be paid toward multiple aspects of management to get a new calf off to the right start. With advanced technologies and research that helps us understand how best to use these technologies, there are actually ways that labor can be reduced while, at the same time, reducing health risk and increasing the protection a newborn calf has against life-threatening diseases.