DCHA Calf & Heifer Tips

Heifer Tips are seen bimonthly in Dairy Herd Managment's Calf and Hiefer Advisor and archived on the DCHA Web site. Have a tip you'd like to share? Submit it to: info@calfandheifer.org.

Water wisdom

Feeding free-choice water to wet calves year-around is an important priority to Mike and Patty Strayer, owners of Strayer Dairy, Wadena, Minn. Trouble is, it can be a cumbersome task.

The Strayers contract-raise wet calves for seven dairies plus their own lactating herd, with 300 calves on milk in hutches at any given time. They use a cart pulled by a four-wheeler to distribute water among the hutches.  To speed up the filling process, they store water in a 600-gallon recycled milk bulk tank. A ½-horsepower sump pump rigged up with PVC pipe and discharge hoses fills the water cart in approximately five to six minutes.

“In the winter, we install a heater in the bulk tank to warm the water for feeding,” adds Mike. “It heats it to about 70°F in the winter, and keeps it cooler in the summer than a poly tank would, even though we don’t use the refrigeration unit. It’s an invention that has saved us countless labor hours and headaches.”

High and dry feeding pails

Ron and Marianne Scherbring of Scherbring’s Heifer Heifer Hotel, Minnesota City, Minn., have rigged up a handy and inexpensive way to dry feeding pails after washing them.

“We’re feeding 400 wet calves at any given time, and try get them drinking milk out of pails as quickly as possible,” explains Marianne. “As our operation grew, it became an issue of where to store the pails after washing, to both keep them out of the way, and to make sure they are sufficiently dried.”

The Scherbrings installed standard cattle panels onto a wall of their shop, clipping and pulling out every other vertical wire on every other horizontal row. These clipped wires, bent at an approximate 45-degree angle, serve as peg on which to hang the pails. As an added bonus, radiant heat from the ceiling just above the rack aids in the drying process.

Because the pails do not touch one another or the floor, the risk of pathogen contamination also is decreased.

More feed turns up the heat

When Mike Davis took over as manager at Harrah Feedlot, Wapato, Wash., about a year ago, one of the trouble spots he noticed was that the Holstein heifers raised at the feedlot were not expressing strong heats. As a result, they were difficult to detect in heat, and breeding goals were not always being met. The operation raises about 5,000 heifers a year for a neighboring dairy, and lagging breeding dates leading to older-than-necessary replacements were impacting the success of both operations.

“I’m convinced a change in nutrition is what turned it around for us,” says Davis. He explains that heifers were being limit-fed to encourage use of lock-ups. However, feeding a larger volume of TMR has improved heat expression and detection dramatically, without impacting lock-up use behavior. “I think they just needed more nutritional resources to address both growth and reproduction,” Davis notes. Heifers now are bred to freshen at approximately 21-23 months of age.

He adds that over conditioning, another initial concern with the increased feed volume, has not been a problem. “We’ve worked closely with our nutritionist to help us walk that fine line,” says Davis. “Like everyone else, we really struggle to keep feed costs down, and we use byproducts whenever we can. Some may say it’s expensive to feed more, but we have concluded that unnecessary days open and delays in getting grown heifers into the milking string are an even greater expense.”

Injection-site strategies

Today, many steak-house cuts of beef come from dairy animals. The increased use of dairy beef by restaurants is due in part to the extended period of time that dairy cattle have access to high-energy, grain-based diets, which has been shown to produce steaks that provide a more pleasurable eating experience.

However, if desired cuts contain injection-site lesions, then the added value disappears. For example, damage to the top sirloin alone from an injection-site lesion can dramatically lower the slaughter value of a carcass.

Because injection-site blemishes starting as early as calfhood may remain with the animal throughout its life, the Dairy Beef Quality Assurance Program advises calf and heifer raisers to follow these beef-quality-protecting practices:

• All products cause tissue damage when injected intramuscularly (IM). Therefore, all IM use should be avoided, if possible.
• Products cleared for subcutaneous, IV or oral administration are recommended.
• Administer injections only in the area in front of the shoulder.
• Use 18-gauge needles as the maximum size in calves, and 16-gauge needles in older heifers, with a maximum length of 1.25 inches.
• Do not inject more than 10 cc of solution per injection site.
• Replace needles every 15 to 25 injections.

Communication coup

Dairy beef quality assurance is the responsibility of everyone in the grower chain, as learned recently by Willmar, Minn. custom heifer grower Tom Gustafson, owner of Gustafson Dairy Heifers.

“One of our large dairy clients was receiving pressure from their wet-calf grower to use an off-label vaccine protocol,” explains Gustafson. “We take their heifers after weaning, and felt very strongly that we should not deviate from the label.”

A group meeting involving the dairy’s management; Gustafson; his herd veterinarian; the vaccine’s manufacturer representative; and the manufacturer’s technical services veterinarian, was very productive. “We ended up agreeing on an on-label protocol,” shares Gustafson. “But, just as important, we all walked away with a better understanding of our collective mission -- to protect the health and safety of the animals in our care, and those interests of the end consumer as well.”

Because the proper administration of the vaccines and antibiotics is everyone’s responsibility, the Dairy Beef Quality Assurance program recommends strict adherences to the following guidelines:

• Follow all FDA/USDA/EPA guidelines for product(s) utilized.
• All products are to be used per label directions.
• Extra-label drug use shall be kept to a minimum, and used only when prescribed by a veterinarian working under a valid Veterinary Client Patient Relationship (VCPR).
• Strict adherence to extended withdrawal periods (as determined by the veterinarian within the context of a valid VCPR) shall be employed.
• Treatment records will be maintained with the following recorded:
• Individual animal or group identification.
• Date treated.
• Product administrated and manufacturer's lot/serial number.
• Dosage used.
• Route and location of administration.
• Earliest date animal will have cleared withdrawal period.

Holstein steers are a different animal

Mike Davis, manager of Harrah Feedlot near Wapato, Wash., has cattle-feeding in his blood. “My grandfather owned a feedlot, and I’ve been in the business since I was 14,” Davis, 37, explains. His background is mostly in feeding beef cattle, but Davis now oversees the feeding and finishing of approximately 7,000 Holstein steers a year. He says dairy steers are not necessarily any harder or easier to feed than beef-breed animals, but do require different management.

“One of the things I love about them is that within 30 days of arriving at the feedlot (starting at approximately 300 pounds), we can have them on the hottest ration we feed,” says Davis. “We really bump up the energy using corn syrup and fat. You can’t do that nearly as quickly with a beef animal, and these dairy steers actually need it, so they don’t get too framey.” He adds that Holstein steers do need more pen space compared to their beef-breed counterparts.

Most of the steers at Harrah are finished at about 1,380 pounds, and can be marketed starting at about 345 days after arrival. Davis says they have overcome the tendency toward smaller rib eyes by using a series of three TBA implants at 120-day intervals, starting when calves enter the feedlot. “Implants are not a replacement for optimal nutrition, but they can help you maximize a good nutrition program,” he states.

Hooked on cleanliness 

Sean and Sandy Quinn and their team at Sunset View Farm, LLC, Schaghticoke, N.Y, are sticklers for sanitation. For example, they never want the transfer hose used to feed calves in his wet-calf barns to touch the ground.

“We use 100 feet of milk-line hose to move milk replacer from a poly tank on the back of a utility vehicle to individual calf pails. It rolls up on a retractable wheel rigged to the unit,” Sean Quinn explains.

To ensure that the hose doesn’t touch the barn floors, Quinn bent pieces of heavy cable covered with rubber insulation into “S” hooks and hung them over a cable which was already in place for shade cloth in each of the three, 50-head barns.

“We simply loop the hose over the hooks as soon as we enter the barns, and start feeding,” Quinn says. “It’s an automatic element of our feeding routine, and helps prevent the spread of pathogens from one barn to the next.”

Color-coded lists work well here

Even with the tracking and list-generating capabilities of Heifer-ProTM software, workers at Amber Hills Ranch, near Rupert, Idaho, were sometimes confused about which animals needed what procedure at processing time. With more than 800 wet calves plus weaned animals to manage at the custom calf and heifer raising facility, it’s easy to understand why.

“Most of our clients want their bull calves castrated, but some do not.  And some want tails bobbed, while others don’t,” explains Bart Hanson, co-owner of the custom-heifer-raising facility. “It is important that every animal receive the correct procedures and vaccinations.”

So he started color-coding the lists by printing them on different colors of paper. That way when it is time to process animals all employees know which animals get what steps. “We still have all of the procedures listed at the top of the page, but it hasn’t taken our guys long to catch onto the idea that a ‘green’ group gets A,B,C treatment, while a ‘blue’ group receives X,Y,Z,” he says.

No substitute for TLC

Linda Arata of Chowchilla, Calif. is more like a foster mother than a calf grower. “I’ve had calves in the kitchen and the bathtub — I’ve fed them on my lap — I’ve pretty much done everything short of sleeping next to them,” she says. 
           
Arata custom raises high-value E.T. calves for a nearby commercial dairy that has a string of registered animals.  While she admits that some of her practices cannot be replicated in a large commercial setting, many of them can. Here are six practices that Arata always uses:

• Use calf jackets in the wintertime, especially on small or fragile calves.  Even in California, the calves sometimes need extra protection from cold stress.
• Avoid esophageal-tube feeding if at all possible on first feeding.
• Hand-feed a few handfuls of starter grain to young calves after each bottle of milk, until they readily consume it on their own.
• Feed water in bottles vs. pails when it is really hot. It promotes consumption and cleanliness.
• Feed grain in bottle-style dispensers to encourage intake and reduce waste.
• Raise calves in individual hutches. 

Arata takes pride in having an annual death loss of less than 1 percent. “I think more dairies need to appreciate calves for what they are,” she says.  “They are the life and future of the dairy.  Any extra investment of time or resources in calves pays off and then some in the future.”

Bunk management for heifers

There’s nothing like shoveling bunks for inspiration. Huddleston, Va. veterinarian and custom-heifer grower Don Gardner says frustration with wasted feed provided the motivation to fine-tune feeding procedures at his heifer operation. Gardner and his son, Sam, raise weaned-to-springing heifers for four dairies, typically caring for about 700 heifers at any given time.

Some feeding lessons they have learned include:

• Feed 80 percent of nutrient needs in a TMR. The remaining 20 percent are fulfilled with free-choice hay and/or pasture.
• If leftover TMR remains in the morning, they slowly cut back volume of their once-a-day feedings until it is cleaned up. Then, they gradually ease the TMR volume back up if necessary for nutritional balance.
• On rainy days, they reduce TMR volume by about 50 percent for small heifers (300-500 pounds), and by 25 percent for the biggest ones. 

Feed bunk management is more of an art than a science, says Gardner. You learn what works and make changes accordingly. However, you also need regular weight checks of heifers to make sure your feeding system is delivering the intended growth rates.

Crayons help track treatments

When treating weaned calves in group housing, Kristen Merle, calf manager at Lamb Farms, Oakfield, N.Y., uses a quick color-coded marking system to identify which treatment a calf received.

“I use crayons to mark the heads of each calf that receives treatment,” she explains. Each of the four colors used — red, orange, blue and green — corresponds to one of four treatment protocols used in weaned calves. “This way I, or anyone else on our team, can look at a pen of calves and see which ones have been recently treated, and with what drug.”

Merle also keeps a written record of each treatment, and enters it into an electronic archive on a Palm Pilot®.  But she likes the convenience of being able to visually evaluate each treatment when she is out working with the calves.

“This method also helps our veterinarian and me evaluate treatment outcomes of various products,” says Merle.  “It makes it easy to walk by a pen of calves, see which ones have been treated, and assess if that treatment is working.”

July 2007

Quick, accurate temping tool

Johanna Laggis, calf manager at Laggis Bros. Dairy, East Hardwick, Vt., uses inexpensive, digital thermometers from the local drugstore for temping young calves. “They’re quick, accurate and affordable, plus they’re much more convenient to use than mercury thermometers,” she says.

Calf-management specialist Sam Leadley, with Attica (N.Y.) Veterinary Associates, affirms that the thermometers are fine to use on calves. “Just be sure to apply gentle pressure when using them, so that the thermometer is touching the wall of the rectum, and not temping air,” Leadley advises.

And be careful where you store them, adds Laggis. “One time I took one out of my pocket and left it on the bathroom counter,” she recalls. “My son used it orally on himself.”