Big changes are happening at the barn! Starting today we will be readjusting out feeding routine at the barn for our calves. Here are the two major adjustments we are going to initiate today with hopes that this will improve the health of our animals: weighing milk replacer powder using scale and feeding from youngest to oldest.
Why are we making these changes? Well, calves can have sensitive stomachs and since we are feeding milk replacer we need to make absolutely certain that we are mixing the milk replacer powder with the appropriate amount of water. This can help reduce instances of bovine diarrhea (BD) and bovine respiratory disease (BRD) which are the two biggest threats to growing newborn calves. The second change (feeding youngest to oldest) is a biosecurity change that can also help with reducing BD and BRD and other diseases. By feeding youngest to oldest, we are not exposing our youngest members to pathogens that our older calves can handle. In other words, the youngest members on the farm have the least developed immune system so limiting their contact with pathogens is ideal to controlling disease.
I am very excited and eager to see how our calves adjust to these slight changes in the feeding routine, but as for today the only ones that seemed grumpy were the oldest calves that have to wait a little longer than usual for their meals 😂🐮 just look at this Jersey's glare!
Today we shipped 4,887 gallons of milk.
Today we had _ new calves.
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