Even skipping a couple of sanitation steps for a few days, or failing to properly wash one piece of equipment, can lead to an outbreak of sick, scouring calves that may take weeks to reverse.

If we want to deliver calves the nutrients their dams would provide, protein and fat levels need to be about 50% higher than the 20:20 recipe we fed for decades.

When the mercury eases down, calves’ nutritional needs go up. So, before those colder days arrive, we need to pre-condition those calves.

Virtually everyone who has adopted a higher feeding rate will tell you their calves now are healthier.

Just like your calves, the milk replacer you feed them needs a protective, consistent and controlled environment for optimal performance.

Scouring and dehydrated calves need electrolyte therapy to replenish fluids and restore the acid-base balance in their bodies. But will any electrolyte product do the trick? Not exactly.

Numerous research studies over the last decade or so have shown that replacement heifers fed more closely to their nutrient needs for higher proteins and fats in the liquid-feeding phase become more productive adult animals.

Summer’s heat takes a toll on calves, and it sometimes arrives with little warning. In some parts of the country, Mother Nature’s fickle personality can deliver a sweltering heat wave just days after near-freezing spring temps.

Most water looks the same, yet its invisible contents can fluctuate tremendously. When used to reconstitute milk replacer, those variations can be troublesome for calf health and growth.

This April, we’ll be at the 25th anniversary DCHA annual conference. We hope to see you there, right in our back yard — Appleton, Wis.

By processing our own ingredients, we now have greater control over the quality and consistency of those inputs.

With newborn dairy-beef calves fetching in the neighborhood of $100 per head more than purebred male Holsteins, it’s an easy decision on the dairy side to strategically incorporate beef sires into their breeding programs.

When you think of coconut oil, the first things that pop into your mind might be suntan lotion or hair conditioner. But coconut oil also can play an important role in preweaned calf nutrition.

If you’re a calf raiser, you probably mix hundreds, if not thousands, of batches of milk replacer every year. It’s a task that becomes second nature in your daily routine. Here are some key steps to feeding accurately and preventing mixing errors.

Not all milk replacers are created equally. It’s important to understand what’s in the bag to be sure the product fits the farm’s objectives when it comes to growing calves. Milk replacer tags are written in a fairly standard format, but can be somewhat confusing to end users.

Two companies, rising from two families, who share one founding principle - a fastidious commitment to superior quality.

We’ve built upon our roots in the veal industry to provide the animal feed industry with a commitment to the same level of quality and consistency in all of our infant animal milk replacer products.

Strauss Feeds really assures that the ingredients that are coming in are quality, and once they’re mixed, that the products we send out to our customers are quality, too.

Neonatal calf diarrhea is a commonly reported disease in young animals and the leading cause of productivity and economic loss to cattle producers worldwide. Learn how to treat it and what to look for.