Dairy calf management systems have changed considerably compared to past decades. Today, many dairies do not raise their calves on-site due to larger facilities, specialized management focus, and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) considerations. Now, many baby calves of a week old or less are being transported across multiple states to be raised at dedicated calf nursery enterprises.

Building their careers and staking their futures in agriculture was never a question for Cindy Reynolds of Cobb, Wis. or Shayna Wilks of Wendell, Idaho. Others may have doubted them, but they never doubted the decision themselves.

The Don Strauss Animal Science Education Center at Huntington University, Huntington, Ind. has made it possible for the school to announce an innovative new major in Veterinary Nursing.

If there’s one, single “secret” to raising healthy calves, it’s the timely delivery of high-quality colostrum to every one of them. We’re still learning about all the “goodies” colostrum delivers. A lot of emphasis is placed on immunoglobulins, particularly IgG, because they can be measured on-farm.

Experienced calf raisers know that scours and pneumonia are the two most common and frustrating health challenges they battle in their animals. What we’re learning now is that the two diseases have some common denominators.

When they enter the world in the middle of winter, newborn calves need all the support we can give them. Calves are born with very little internal fat and few reserves to regulate their body temperature.

When Old Man Winter calls and the mercury falls, we want to do everything we can to protect our calves, including nutritionally. Adding fat to the ration can help calves maintain body temperature, respiration, blood circulation, and body condition.

The 10,000-square-foot facility was named in honor of the late Don Strauss, founder of Strauss Veal Feeds and Midwest Poultry Services. The Strauss family of North Manchester, Ind. granted the lead gift for the project.

If there is one ingredient I wouldn’t want to give up when making excellent milk replacer, it’s whey.

For decades, we’ve appreciated the merits of coconut oil as a beneficial component of the fat portion of calf milk replacer (CMR). Now, you’ll find it in every bag of our CMR products.

When calf milk replacer became commercially available decades ago, adding antibiotics like oxytetracycline, neomycin, and chlortetracycline was a common practice. Often these were delivered at “sub-therapeutic” levels, meaning they were not intended to treat disease, but rather to promote growth.

One of the most helpful, non-antibiotic additives developed for preweaned calves in the past several decades is mannan oligosaccharides, or MOS.

Taking care of calves that are born perfectly healthy and strong—only to break with scours within a few days of birth through 10 days—is a highly frustrating scenario.

The choice of vessel to deliver milk to preweaned calves is an individual decision for every operation. There are dairies and custom calf raisers that achieve excellent results using either buckets or bottles to feed their calves.

Adding antibiotics to calf milk replacer was a very common practice in the United States for several decades. In fact, there was a time when more than half of all milk replacer sold in the U.S. was medicated with antibiotics.

For a number of years now animal science research institutions have explored the benefits of raising calves in pairs or small groups over individual housing.

When longtime Strauss Feeds customers, Sherry Arnold and Minnie Ward, started their farming careers more than four decades ago, there weren’t many women choosing production agriculture as their career paths.

When we think of the “best” calf milk replacer (CMR) ingredients, most growers would say all-milk formulations take first place.

At long last, we now have new, research-based guidelines to better steer our calf nutrition decisions.

Winter is actually a pretty great time to raise calves. In fact, many calf raisers report their best growth rates for preweaned calves occur reliably in the winter months each year.