Colossal Calf on Leap Day!

I have been with this farm for five years and in that time I have seen some pretty wild things and today was no exception. When I got to the barn, I was greeted with the largest, most curious eyes from what was easily the biggest newborn calf ever born on this farm. This gigantic calf stands above my waist and if I had to guess her weight, I would estimate anywhere around 120 pounds! Now, I want to put this into perspective to emphasize just how shockingly large this heifer calf is. On any dairy farm, the average birth weight of a Holstein is typically within 91 pounds and this statistic is provided by the Journal of Dairy Science linked here. 

Birth weight is a consideration when breeding cows as this is one of many factors that will influence the relative ease of the birthing process. Luckily for us, our colossal calf came out of an older cow that has already had calf which typically means they will not need any assistance during labor. A first calf heifer which is a cow that has now given birth typically require the most assistance during labor. I have helped a few cows on our farm give birth, and I cannot wait to learn more about it and bring more calves into the world. Too bad for this girly we won't celebrate her birthday for another four more years 😉🐸

Our giant heifer calf was our only baby born on the farm.

Today we shipped TBA gallons of milk. 

Hormones Part Two

Yesterday we talked about progesterone and LH (luteinizing hormone), today I want to talk about the two other important hormones involved with estrous which are estrogen and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). 

Starting with FSH, this hormone is produced by the pituitary gland which is found near the base of the brain. This hormone is important as it will encourage the production of follicles on the ovary. A follicle can be thought of almost like a pimple, except the interior is filled with supportive fluid and a single, immature egg. The ovary can have multiple follicles appear at once, however only one will fully mature and eventually rupture. A mature follicle must rupture to release the egg, and once ruptured the new structure that remains on the ovary for several more days is a corpus luteum. Estrogen ties into follicular development by helping to trigger the rupturing event for a mature follicle. Once levels of estrogen are high in the body (follicles will release estrogen as well as ovaries) this can cause a cascade of events which the end result is increased production and secretion of LH and rupture of the mature ovarian follicle. 

Here is a neat photograph curtesy of imv imaging of a cow ovary indicated by the yellow arrow with three small follicles indicated by the red arrows.

Whew, all this hormone talk is complicated! I hope you learned something just like I have and I will continue to expand upon the cattle estrous cycle next week :)

Today we shipped 4,735 gallons of milk.

Today we had no new calves. 

Hormones Part One

Chores went as usual and the unique aspect of the day was when the CIDRs arrived so a handful of jersey heifers that are of breeding age got implanted with them. This got me thinking, I remember creating a post about the CIDRs in the past but I do not think that I went into detail about the specific hormones related to estrous and pregnancy so I'm going to change that! CIDR can be pronounced as seeder and this device uses the hormone progesterone to help farmers synchronize estrous cycles for breeding purposes. Today and tomorrow I want to discuss four important hormones related to the estrous cycle of cows. For now, I want to start with progesterone and luteinizing hormone.

I have already described the primary function of progesterone above in my introduction. Progesterone is a hormone that is secreted by a temporary organ (sometimes referred to as a gland) called the corpus luteum. A corpus lutetium is found on the ovary only after the complete maturation and rupture of a follicle. Progesterone influences the cells lining the uterus to prepare for pregnancy, making it the perfect environment for a developing embryo. 

When I mention that the follicle ruptures, this process is more simply known as ovulation! Ovulation can be thought of in a more biochemical light simply by considering how the hormone LH (luteinizing hormone) stimulates the release of a mature follicle. LH is secreted from the anterior pituitary gland (roughly located at the base of the brain) and without it ovulation would not proceed. Without ovulation, the formation of a corpus luteum will not ensue and no progesterone will be released.   

If you are interested in learning more, check out this link here as it provides a further detailed explanation to ovulation and the purpose of a corpus luteum. Below is a figure from the linked source which shows what the ovary would look like during each stage of follicular (egg) development until eventual ovulation and formation of a corpus luteum. 

Today we shipped 4,904 gallons of milk

Today we had _ new calves. 

Weaned Pen Update

Well today we had a bit of a messy day at the barn. In the afternoon when I went across the street to gather fresh colostrum for our new heifer calf one of the jugs burst open in the bed of the ranger and made a huge mess. I did my best to clean the ranger with the hose and was able to save two of the three jugs of colostrum. 

It has now been a few days since we made the new adjustments to the weaned calf pens and to my surprise the calves are consuming so much more silage than before! I wonder if the setup allows for the calves to eat more throughout the day as the aisle can hold a significantly higher proportion of silage when compared to the old feed troughs we used before. I hope this means that the calves we are raising will grow twice as well as they did before. A second benefit I have observed thus far with the new changes is that we are able to push and stir the feed a bit easier. Sometimes when we push the feed the calves might think that this is brand new silage and they get excited to eat again. The truth is that these girls absolutely love their grain, it is like candy to them and many of the calves including our older cows will pick through the silage to eat the best parts. I like to think of this behavior of theirs like how we will pick through trail mix and eat all of the chocolate chips before even considering eating the pesky raisins! Click this link to see a video of this cutie checking out my phone. 

Today we had one new jersey heifer born in the morning.

Today we shipped ___ gallons of milk.  

New Weaned Pens

We were finally able to make the changed to the weaned calf pens that we had wanted to do. While at the barn we took down the gates and fully extended them to reach the aisle where we drive the tractor. This was done so that the calves now have an even larger pen (more than doubled the pen size) and so that feeding up in the morning will become easier. In the future we would like to turn the aisle into concrete and fix the large metal door so that the feed truck can drive through the calf barn in the morning during feed up hours as an additional stop on their routine. 

In the past we would drive the tractor to collect the silage from across the road and pour the silage into the feed troughs. For some bizarre reason that I still have yet to understand is that some calves would actually jump into their feed and stand on all of the fresh silage. The feed troughs were in the pens with the calves, so perhaps the temptation to play with their food was too high, comparable to a toddler with finger foods... I have even caught some of the calves standing in their feed and relieving themselves, yuck! The benefit to our new setup is that the weaned calves can not climb into their feed anymore, instead they reach their head through an opening in the wooden fence to reach the silage. I am very excited to see how this will impact the health of our calves. Now that the pens are nearly doubled in size we can keep them in the calf barn for a longer period of time before they get transitioned to the heifer barn. In the first picture we just finished setting up the new pens and since there was still a decent amount of silage left in the feed trough we left it in the pen for the girls to clean up, and as you can see they completely circled the feed. The second picture shows the weaned calves learning where to access their silage from now onward in the aisle. 

There were no calves born today.

Today we shipped 4,761 gallons of milk. 

The Power of Cleaning

Yesterday I talked about the vast number of dirty dishes we cleaned, well today we cleaned out the individual pens, provided the calves with fresh bedding, and gave our transitioning calves fresh bedding while they wait on the construction of their group pen. When we clean the dishes we want to remove as much dirt and microorganisms as possible which is why we add the chemicals and dish soap. To properly disinfect the pens we apply a layer of evenly spread lime to the concrete floor. Lime has several benefits such as acting like a powerful antibacterial by killing some pathogenic bacteria, and by helping control the growth of mold by reducing and controlling moisture levels. If you are interested in reading more about the use of lime in agriculture and as a disinfectant follow this link.

Have you ever heard of the deep pack method? This is a method to caring for cattle (and others, for example this has been applied to the care of chickens) where essentially we start with a large, solid layer of clean bedding and this is turned every few months. Fresh bedding can be added on the top but an interesting fact about this bedding method is that the eventual collection of microorganism within the lower layers of the bedding will start to create heat through metabolic reactions thus creating a "heat pad" like bedding layer to keep the animals extra warm during the cold months. We will slowly graduate our calves after a brief period of time to the deep bedding method, but we start them out in individualized pens that provide them with the most bio secure area to develop their immune system.   

Today we had two bull calves born in the afternoon.

Today we shipped 4,597 gallons of milk. 

Dirty Dishes

Nobody seems to mention just how many dishes there are involved with calf chores. Every single day we have to clean all sixteen milk buckets, plus the tube feeder if it was used, and all of the milk replacer bottles twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon following feedings. The number of milk replacer bottles fluctuates per week, but as of now we have six. We also have to wash the grain buckets and the water buckets all while keeping the warm room clean too! Today we did exactly that, lots and lots of cleaning! It is so important that we clean this frequently to ensure that our calves are are at the minimum risk of encountering a pathogenic organism such as a virus or bacteria. Our calves are born with no immune system and many of their initial protection to pathogens comes from the immunoglobulins (antibodies) that are absorbed from the colostrum. Imagine if we did not clean the equipment as frequently as we do, we would be putting our newest members of the herd at a direct risk of catching a potentially life threatening illness. This is also why some farms will purposefully feed the cows from youngest to oldest to avoid the transmission of pathogens to the youngest members. 

 

Today we had one Jersey heifer and one bull calf born.

Today we shipped 4,627 gallons of milk. 

The Funky Eared Calf

One of the new heifer calves that was born yesterday had a misshaped ear and I didn't actually notice it until today! When I was feeding her morning bottle I thought that the ear on the right looked quite large compared to her other ear. Upon further inspection I realized that it was deformed at birth. In the picture below you can see that her ear has extra cartilage forming a cone like shape. This will not impact her at all, it just makes her look a bit more distinguished compared to her other calf friends! I also included a short video of her drinking her milk replacer out of a bucket! She was quite feisty and ready for dinner so it was quite the challenge trying to get a picture of her that was not excessively blurry. 

Chores went as usual today, and there was some discussion about setting up new calf pens for our older weaned calves later this week. I will update the blog as soon as we make the pen changes. 

Video link.

Today we had one bull calf born in the afternoon.

Today we shipped 4,890 gallons of milk. 

Presidents Day at the Farm

No classes today because of the recognition of Presidents Day, however the cows still need to be fed so that means we have to make sure someone is at the barn during all of the holidays!

Today we had 3 new heifer calves born.

Today we shipped 4,920 gallons of milk.

Naval Guard - Veterinary Medicine Week Wrap-Up

It is Friday which means this will be the last post of the veterinary medicine week! I thought I would pick something unique to wrap up the week and for today I want to talk about the naval guard. I have mentioned in the past that we dip the belly button on all of our newborn calves with an iodine-like solution and thought I would dive deeper into the 'why.' 

Below is a picture of the naval guard that we use at our farm, it is a deep reddish/orange color and if you get it on your hands it tends to stain for a few days! The naval guard primarily contains isopropyl alcohol which is the main acting ingredient that aids in drying the naval of our calves quickly. So what is the point of dipping their naval if it dries up on its own? This is important because newborn calves are born will a developing immune system where some of the initial protection against pathogens is obtained though consumption of high quality colostrum. The naval of newborn calves is the umbilical cord when they were in utero. As we all know the umbilical cord is important as it provides the passage of nutrients to the calf as it is growing and developing, however once born the umbilical cord is now a threat as it can now pose a risk of acting as a bacteria highway to the bloodstream of the calf. One such disease that is a systemic, body-wide infection of the blood is called sepsis. Sepsis is very dangerous and can be fast acting. So, in the end the faster we can dip the naval and dry it out, the better we are at preventing disease associated with the umbilical cord at birth. 

Today we had a bull calf born in the morning and a Jersey bull calf born in the afternoon.

Today we shipped ___ gallons of milk. 

 

Nasal Spray - Veterinary Week Day 4

With every new addition to the farm comes another round of the first calf protocol, and as such we give every new heifer calf two types of nasal sprays. One is nasalgen and the other is called once PMH. In the past, we have gotten these vaccines as a combination but for now we have been purchasing them as two separate treatments. When they arrive at the farm these vaccines are in small glass jars with a liquid and a powder set. The nasalgen comes with a clear liquid while the once PMH comes with a blue liquid. Prior to administering the vaccines to our calves we have to mix the liquid with the correct powder (nasalgen has clear liquid and a powder jar while once PMH has blue liquid and a powder jar) and then dispense the solution directly into the nasal cavity of our calves. These jars are really small, each nasal spray is roughly between 2 and 3 milliliters of solution each.  

So, why does this vaccine come unmixed? That is because both the nasalgen and the once PMH are attenuated live vaccines. Vaccinations come in several different flavors, one of these being attenuated live. An attenuated live vaccine is a type of vaccination that will weaken the virus in some way (functionality, severity of infection, etc) so that this vaccine can provide the immune system with a weaker version of the virus of prepare antibody and remember the infection incase of future exposure. The powder is actually the attenuated virus and the liquid portion is used to rehydrate the virus. These vaccines should be used immediately upon mixing for best results and to preserve the virus the sealed jars are kept inside a refrigerator. This is one of the few vaccines we have at our farm that we need to keep cool, J-VAC is another example. In the pictures below you can see the heifer calf that I gave nasal spray, and it seems that some of it ran down and into her mouth which she did not like... what a silly face!

Today there was one bull calf and one heifer born in the morning.    

Today we shipped 4,839 gallons of milk

Valentines Day and LA200 - Veterinary Medicine Week Day 3

Happy Valentines day from all of us at the farm! To celebrate this holiday, a special cow on our farm gave birth to an absolutely stunning heifer calf. I have included a few pictures below of this gal' and if you notice she does not look quite like a typical Jersey or Holstein cross. This is because our newest addition to the herd is actually a Jersey and Angus hybrid (which we lovingly call Jangus). Her mother was also a Jangus, with an emphasis on the Angus characteristics as she is a short and stout cow! We are very excited to see what this little lady will grow up to look like as they will change so much in appearance as they age.

Today I wanted to talk about another type of antibiotic that we have used at our farm, and one that is commonly used at other operations and this is LA200. This contains a broad spectrum antibiotic known as oxytetracycline and is suggested to be effective at the treatment of some forms of bacterial scours, respiratory causing bugs, and many more illnesses. LA200 can also be purchased as a mixture with banamine, which I like to think of as Advil-for-cows (pain reliver, classified as a NSAID which is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug). Oxytetracycline is easily capable of passing through the bacterial cell membranes where it will interrupt ribosomal function resulting in no/minimal creation of proteins and eventual cell death. A ribosome is a very important organelle found inside nearly every cell and its primary function is to create proteins that preform various homeostatic processes. Without the ability to create proteins, (a term coined translation) the cell will eventually die and in the context of LA200 this would mean that the bacteria causing infection if susceptible to oxytetracycline will die due to the disruption of translation. How interesting! 

Today we only had the cute heifer calf in the pictures above!

Today we shipped 4,878 gallons of milk. 

Dexamethasone - Veterinary Medicine Week Day 2

This is day two of the veterinary medicine week, and today I wanted to talk about dexamethasone. Unlike nuflor, dexamethasone is a steroid which is a type of man-made hormone used for the management of inflammation, pain, and many more! Typically dexamethasone is given if a cow is in any physical discomfort. We use it sparingly at our farm because we have another drug that preforms a very similar action. This would be Prevail, however the main difference between Prevail and dexamethasone is that Prevail is classified as a NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) while dexamethasone is a steroid. 

Today I was in charge of getting the silage for the weaned calves in the calf barn. It was snowing a little bit outside and the breeze was extra chilly so I made sure to bundle up before driving across the farm in the tractor. I made a short video of myself driving the tractor and unloading it in the calf pens linked below. I am always extra careful when unloading the silage because sometimes the calves can get overly excited and climb into the feed troughs, but luckily I kept them all under control! Our calves get fresh silage every morning as needed, but if you ask me they seem far more excited to pick out and eat the grain before anything else.   

YouTube

Today we had one heifer calf born in the afternoon.

Today we shipped 5,012 gallons of milk.

Nuflor - Veterinary Medicine Week Day 1

Here is the weekend recap: there was a new heifer calf and one new bull calf born on the farm.

Starting this week I wanted to try to implement something new and interesting into my blog! I thought setting a theme for the week would help make the topics of each post more thrilling and interesting, so this week I thought it would be fun to explore the world of veterinary medicine at the dairy farm. I have talked about treating our sick calves and cows for various things such as metritis and ketosis, but I have not talked about the vaccines and how they are so effective at helping sick cows. Today, I want to start by talking about nuflor.

Nuflor is an antibiotic which main purpose is to treat bacterial infections. Antibiotics are powerful tools that interfere will cellular processes of the bacterium which ultimately leads to their demise. When I did more research about this antibiotic online I found that the major component is forfenicol. Forfenicol is designed to manage bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and bovine foot rot. Additionally, forfenicol is classified as a broad spectrum antibiotic meaning it is capable of controlling both gram positive and gram negative infections. If that sounded confusing, all that means is this is antibiotic is effective against a large variety of bacteria! A gram positive bacteria will have a very thick peptidoglycan layer (peptides and sugars bonded together) comprising the cell wall while a gram negative bacteria generally has thinner cell walls and a thicker layer of lipopolysaccharides (lipids and sugars bonded together). 

Phew, that was a lot! Here is a cute cow picture of the girls eating their breakfast to help you process this new information! 

Today we had no new calves born

Today we shipped 4,878 gallons of milk.      

Bacterial Study Update

I have an interesting update regarding the bacterial cleanliness study I conducted a few days ago and here are my results. To my surprise, there was a single bacterial growth on one petri plate! The petri plate with a single colony was the plate labeled nipple feeder two. This means that the sample I collected was from the interior of the nipple feeder and that this was the second of two plates assigned to this object. Now, this could be interpreted in several ways and these were my initial thoughts.

First, it is possible to consider that the current cleaning regime at the barn is doing wonderfully at controlling the microbial populations coming in direct contact with our calves. I purposefully swabbed objects that might expose our calves to germs so that we can we can see just how effective our current cleaning routine is. The other consideration I had was that there could have been some human error when I performed the collections/serial dilutions/plating... For now, I will plan on testing this again with a fresh round of petri plates! This time, I will attempt to swab the objects and directly transfer them to the petri plates to see if there is any bacterial growth at all, regardless if it is quantifiable. In the two photographs below they are the same petri plates, I just drew a red circle and arrow on the plate with the single bacterial colony to make it a bit easier to see.

Barn chores were simple, spent a considerable amount of time checking the health of the calves and recording temperatures of the youngest babies. I will begin outlining a new plan to perform a second series of bacterial cultures that will hopefully be run sometime within the next two weeks! 

No new calves were born today.

Today we shipped 4,812 gallons of milk 

 

Premi Onboard

On our farm the Holstein calves that are born tend to run on the larger size when compared to the other local dairies. If I had to give an estimate, I believe our calves tend to have an average birthweight anywhere around 70 to 85 lbs. Before I started sharing my experiences at the farm on Blogspot we have had calves born with weights that even exceed 90 lbs! So, when we had an accidental birth and a teeny-tiny premature bull calf born it instantly caught our eye. This little guy is maybe 60 lbs and unfortunately we believe that he is at minimum partially blind. It is possible that this could correct itself as he continues to mature. We really wanted to try to make this guy as comfortable as possible so he was immediately brought indoors to a temperature controlled environment with plenty of fresh bedding. Premature calves can be quite challenging, however I know that I can say for certain I am looking forward to this learning experience. 

Naturally I had to take some pictures of this mini cow and you can see them below. 

Premi' was the only calf born today!

Today we shipped 4,812 gallons of milk. 

Bacterial Study on Cleanliness

Today was a very exciting day for me at the barn because I recently purchased a gift for myself and it arrived this weekend. I bought a set of nutrient agar petri plates and I will be conducting a project on the cleanliness by swabbing four separate locations on the farm and plating the results! 

That was the simplified version of my plan, but now if you are interested in more detail I will discuss below. First I will only be swabbing four separate locations on the facility due to their importance in association to the calves so that would mean samples collected from a unit in the milking parlor will be excluded... perhaps in the future if this goes well I can attempt more! As for now, the four locations I have determined to test will be the inside of a bottle used to feed the calves (1), the interior part of a nipple attachment for the bottles (2), a swab of a container that holds the colostrum (3), and finally a swab of the inside of a bucket that calves drink milk out of (4). Each object I swab will be allocated two nutrient agar petri plates and two plates will be set aside to act as a control. Since it is already hypothesized by myself that each location will likely sustain a significant portion of bacterial cultures I want to perform serial dilutions. All this will do is dilute the sample to a readable amount and with some simple calculations I can interpret the data and provide an estimate to the number of colonies present at that location. If I did not do this I pose a risk of growing too many colonies on my petri plates which would make counting them impossible. For the purposes of my experiment I will dilute my samples to in a 1:10 ratio by first fully incorporating my swab with 2ml of distilled water (this creates my stock solution of bacteria) and preparing three test tubes with 9ml of distilled water each. Then I will take 1ml of my bacterial mixture and add it to the first of three test tubes. Afterwards I will extract 1ml from the first test tube, dispense it into the second and repeat this process one last time for the third test tube. My final steps will be to collect a final swab of the third test tube and plate it on two petri plates. Since there are four locations and each is assigned two petri plates this means that I will have eight plates that should show signs of bacterial growth and two additional plates as my control group with no bacterial growth. Ideally there will be minimal or zero growth on the petri plates as these are cleaned twice daily and come in direct contact with our newest members of the farm. 

Below are several pictures of myself running this experiment! 

There was a new heifer calf born this morning.

Today we shipped 4,731 gallons of milk. 

Tuesday Vet Day Update

Tuesdays at the farm are the newly dedicated day for vet checks! This is when the veterinarian for the farm comes over to help us with any medical treatments/surgeries, they will also help us check the pregnancy status of our cows using ultrasound equipment, but generally speaking the vet is here to work with us on anything regarding the wellness of these cows! 

Recently, our farm transitioned the old cow collars to a different, newer one with better qualities such as heat detection capabilities. So what does this mean for the farm? It means that we have our vet coming to the farm once a week instead of twice like they did in the past, and this means that instead of breeding a large group of cows one day of the week we are now breeding several small groups scattered throughout the week based on the heat detection software. 

While I still am attending the University of Maine I hope to see an AI course (artificial insemination) for cattle in March so that I can become a certified cow breeder! In the past there have been courses offered over spring break to take at the University and as long as this happens again for the 2024 academic year then I will attend and start breeding cows here at my farm! As for now, I focus on giving these calves the best care possible!    

During afternoon chores while I was on my way to grab some fresh jugs of colostrum I managed to record a new video for my YouTube channel of the Jersey cows on their way to the milking parlor. Someone left the bucket to our farm equipment near the sawdust and many of the curious cows had to check it out on their way to being milked! You can check the video out here: Jersey Cow Video

There were two new heifer calves born this afternoon.

Today we shipped 4,767 gallons of milk

IV Fluid Treatment

As part of my research I am collecting a lot of data on the health of my calves, such as temperature recordings twice daily prior to both morning and afternoon feedings. One of my calves born recently had a little bit of a rough start so I have been monitoring her very closely and looking for changes in her temperament and disease status. Below I included the current complete list of the temperature recordings I have for this calf and as you can see she has a relatively low body temperature. Since it is February and the average temperature for the day is set at 17* Fahrenheit, this little lady had remained indoors in a heat controlled environment. Her body is going to be working twice as hard compared to a healthy calf so to try and help her further I administered subcutaneous IV fluids underneath the skin on her neck. IV fluids are a great way to keep a calf hydrated, especially if they are unwilling to eat or drink and all I needed to do was warm the IV to body temperature. As I continue to manage this girl I intend on providing her with warm electrolytes to help combat the dehydration caused by scours and keep a close eye on her temperature.   

No new calves were born today, but we had one heifer calf born over the weekend.

Today we shipped 4,752 gallons of milk.

Youtube Account for Blogspot!

I have some very exciting news regarding my blog! I have been working very hard trying to establish a way for me to post short videos to coincide with my daily blog posts instead of only including images in every post. I included the link to my YouTube channel that I will periodically be posting short videos. The first video I have uploading on my YouTube channel is a short that is only about one minute long which shows a heifer calf of only a few days old being trained to drink milk out of a bucket! If you watch the video you will see that a hand is often used to coax the calf's mouth down towards the bottom of the pail where her warm milk is resting. For most calves like this one they typically learn rather quickly that the milk is in the bucket and will no longer need assistance when feeding! There have been numerous times I can recall when I start training a bottle baby on eating milk in a bucket and after the first try they immediately understand and will eat their next feeding from the bucket without any of my guidance. Here is a preview of our star featured in my YouTube short, she is the notorious calf in the video titled "Feeding Calves." In the future I want to include informative shorts on things such as the complete process for tending to a newborn heifer calf, administering subcutaneous IV, and many more! 

The link to the YouTube short can be accessed here: Rachael's Dairy Cows

No new calves were born.

We shipped a total of 4,791 gallons of milk.

Semester Research Project

Throughout the semester I will be collecting data on calf temperatures, colostrum information, sire and dam records, and more! The purpose of this project is to hopefully highlight any husbandry areas that we could improve upon so that our calves are receiving the best possible care. 

As of this winter we started to adjust the early care for our newborns that are only a few days old by keeping them indoors in a temperature controlled environment (the calf hutches with few modifications make excellent moveable pens which has allowed us to start raising some calves inside). In theory, we want to see if this will improve the quality of life of our calves by providing them with extra attention for their first introduction to life on the farm. In other words, we want to give them a jumpstart to ensure they remain healthy and happy. This little jersey girl was one of the four heifer calves born today and she was especially wet after birth so to avoid hypothermia I checked her temperature and quickly moved her indoors into a calf hutch. As you can see, she is enjoying her time in the warm room and is eagerly awaiting her dinner! 

Part of my data collection as I mentioned above will include colostrum data. For example, in the picture below this is jersey 330 and she was born this afternoon on (2-1-2024). I simply took a brix refractometer reading of the colostrum and as long as the returning value is above or equal to 22 it is considered to be good quality and will be fed to newborn heifers. This jersey for her first feed received only one pint of 30+ brix reading, but on her second feeding we gave her 4pts of a colostrum with 25 brix reading which she happily guzzled down! I intend to provide research updates weekly to any interesting observations or to simply share a small piece of what research in the dairy industry might look like. 

Today we shipped 4,729 gallons of milk.  

There were a whopping five calves born today; three Holstein heifers, one jersey heifer, and one spunky Holstein bull calf!