Calf Care Corner

Name: Calf Care Corner
Address: Ontario, CA

Home
Canada
Ontario
Calf Care Corner

Finding information about raising calves is not always easy. Wherever possible, we will provide links to useful calf management information.

🔬 From science to practical solutions
🐄 Focused on calf health, welfare & nutrition
💡 Real-world tips for everyday farm challenges
📍 Proudly sharing Canadian insights & support As busy farmers or students, our time is limited and searching the Internet for calf information is often time consuming and confusing. www.Calfcare.ca, created by Veal Farmers of Ontario, has pulled together calf

rearing resources into a single website designed to help you improve the way calves are raised on your farm. We also hold the Healthy Calf Conference biennially in Ontario, Canada.

06/16/2026

Frequent air exchanges, appropriate stocking density, and management of drafts are of the utmost importance for ensuring adequate ventilation to prevent respiratory disease in calves. Producers can struggle with how to balance all of these factors, and the metrics for ensuring excellent ventilation can differ from farm-to-farm.

Listen as we discuss ventilation for calf housing systems and how to optimize it with Harold House, an engineer with Dairy Logix, in this podcast episode: https://on.soundcloud.com/oBzJYPi2Mp8GVuBP6J

Find more podcasts here: https://calfcare.ca/management/podcasts/

06/09/2026

Managing calf health is a team effort. Depending on the size of the farm, this could mean a variety of people have responsibility for calf health, husbandry, biosecurity, cleaning, feeding, and even euthanasia.

Why do I need protocols?

The key to the best possible outcomes in all aspects of raising and managing calves is consistency – and one of the best ways to achieve that is by developing a strong and detailed set of protocols or standard operating procedures.

What kind of information is part of a protocol?

A treatment protocol for Bovine Respiratory Disease and pneumonia, for example, will describe early symptoms of the condition to help you detect which animals might be sick. A scoring chart of the severity of clinical signs helps determine whether or not an antimicrobial treatment is required, followed by a list of acceptable treatment options, their dose and frequency, and necessary withdrawal times.

How do I get started?

Your herd veterinarian is the best partner in helping you develop and implement protocols appropriate for your farm. That’s because they have a broad range of knowledge about production practices, health, and welfare, and can work with you to put the solutions in place that will work best for your herd and your operation.

Find out more in our article in the May issue of the Milk Producer.

🔗 https://milkproducer.ca/archive/2026-may/

06/02/2026

It’s essential that calves ingest adequate volumes of high-quality colostrum in the first hours of life to achieve transfer of passive immunity. Testing on-farm Immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration ensures the volume fed delivers adequate total IgG to the calf.

A Brix refractometer can be used to estimate IgG concentration, recognizing that higher values are generally associated with better outcomes. Test results can guide feeding decisions in real time. If the dam’s colostrum does not meet targets, it can be enriched with a colostrum replacer powder or replaced with high-quality frozen, stored colostrum.

But what happens if too many cows are producing colostrum that does not meet quality standards? Individual, seasonal, environmental, nutritional, and management factors can all influence colostrum yield and IgG concentrations. In these cases, a herd-level review might be in order.

To guide this process, key factors associated with colostrum quality are reviewed in June's edition of "Calf Care Corner", guest-authored by Dr. Cynthia Miltenburg.

🔗 https://calfcare.ca/management/understanding-and-solving-colostrum-quality-challenges/

Sign-up for the monthly e-newsletter: https://calfcare.ca/calf-care-corner/

05/27/2026

This week we're celebrating seven years of with the release of live recordings from our spring Producer Education Day.

Today's live recording is of PhD candidate Titouan Chapelain's talk, "Feeding dairy-cross calves for success: From day one to weaning."

Early-life nutrition is a major driver of growth, health, and future performance in dairy-cross calves. This talk will cover practical feeding strategies for dairy-cross calves, focusing on colostrum, milk replacer composition, milk volume, and a low-stress weaning transition.

Watch the full recording here: https://calfcare.ca/management/feeding-dairy-cross-calves-for-success-from-day-one-to-weaning/

05/26/2026

This week we're celebrating seven years of with the release of live recordings from our spring Producer Education Day.

Today's live recording is from Dr. Jeff Caswell's talk, "An overview of Mycoplasma bovis disease in calves."

Mycoplasma bovis is a common cause of respiratory and other diseases in calves. This presentation is an overview of:
- Knowledge of the bacterium and how calves acquire the infection
- The range of diseases it causes and how they develop
- Why some infected calves become sick while others remain healthy
- How the disease is diagnosed
- Some aspects of the disease that are relevant to controlling it in groups of calves

Watch the full recording here: https://calfcare.ca/management/an-overview-of-mycoplasma-bovis-disease-in-calves/

And stay tuned for tomorrow's webinar release!

05/19/2026

Research conducted at the University of Guelph has identified several metrics that can be used to identify calves arriving at veal facilities that are high-risk for future mortality and treatment for disease. One factor that was identified to be important in predicting future disease risk was the presence of a sunken flank.

What is a sunken flank?

A sunken flank is present when a calf has a hollow abdomen or depression in the paralumbar fossa (the area behind the rib cage is depressed inwards).

Why do sunken flanks occur?

It is not completely clear how sunken flanks occur however it is thought that they develop over time when there is a long period of time between milk meals. As calves with little to no energy input have reduced disease resistance, this is likely the reason for the association between sunken flank and mortality. In addition, the presence of a sunken flank is further compounded by long transport times, where calves will expend additional energy to move and stay warm, leading to less energy to expend on fighting disease.

Find out more about how to prevent sunken flanks in our column in April's edition of the Milk Producer, guest-authored by Dr. Dave Renaud.

🔗 https://milkproducer.ca/archive/2026-april/

And check out our downloadable resource.

🔗https://calfcare.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Sunken-Flank-Resource-VFO-online.pdf

05/12/2026

With warmer temperatures forecasted for later this week, today's talks about all things flies so we can get ahead of the game this year!

From May to October, flies can be a problem for your livestock operation, with peak levels occurring from mid-July to mid-September.

The two most common fly species in livestock operations are house flies and stable flies. Bites can be painful and cause restlessness in animals. Further, animals are less likely to consume feed with flies on it, and flies can be a source of disease spread.

Controlling and eliminating flies at early life stages (eggs or larvae) is most effective. Look for larvae (maggots) to determine the locations where flies are laying eggs and target these areas in your control and prevention strategy. Flies can move up to one kilometre, so ensure your fly control program targets all potential breeding sources within this radius.

Preventing a population build up is easier than controlling established populations. Take proactive steps to control flies before your facility is heavily infested.

🔗 https://calfcare.ca/management/housing/warm-weather-housing/fly-control/

05/07/2026

New research is reshaping how farmers should think about Mycoplasma bovis in calves, suggesting that exposure alone is not what drives disease. It’s actually what happens after exposure that matters more.

Most calves exposed to Mycoplasma bovis never get sick. It’s the presence of stress and co-infection, especially inflammation in the respiratory tract, that appears to determine whether calves progress to clinical disease.

“By far the majority of those infected calves will appear clinically healthy,” said Dr. Jeff Caswell, Professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the Ontario Veterinary College. “So just because you detect Mycoplasma bovis doesn’t mean it’s responsible for the disease.”

For veal producers, that distinction matters. It shifts the focus away from trying to eliminate the pathogen — which is likely unrealistic — and more toward managing the conditions that allow it to cause damage.

Read the full article on Dr. Caswell's talk in May's edition of "Calf Care Corner.

🔗 https://calfcare.ca/management/mycoplasma-bovis-driven-by-inflammation-and-co-infection-not-just-exposure/

Sign-up for the monthly e-newsletter.

🔗 https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/sl/394bH7T

05/05/2026

May's "Calf Care Corner" e-newsletter will arrive on Thursday due to a technical issue with CalfCare.ca. The website will be back online later this week. We apologize for the inconvenience and promise this week's will be worth the wait!

04/28/2026

Did you know the pre-transport checklist we shared last week has a companion guide for calf buyers?

When buying male dairy and dairy-cross calves there are a few key areas to pay close attention to. A muzzle to tail examination (even visually) at the time of purchase will make the difference of well-finished cattle at marketing.

Check it out here: https://calfcare.ca/management/buying-male-dairy-calves/

Address

Ontario

Website

http://calfcare.ca/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Calf Care Corner posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Calf Care Corner:

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Business in Ontario?