How to have healthy calves

Coronavirus/Rotavirus affects newborn calves and usually kills them or sets them back severely, it is usually identified by white scours and the calf appears listless, weak, thin, and does not respond to antibiotics, eventually the hair starts to drop off and feels like cardboard. It is frustrating to the cow as her calf stops taking milk and withers away.

When I first implemented an optimal calving season in the subtropics of Florida, we started having very young calves with scours, sometimes grey and sometimes white. At first, I could not identify the agent causing this but knew that it did not respond to antibiotics. Thanks to a good veterinarian that had experience with dairy cattle and after taking many samples to the laboratory he was able to identify the agent causing these deaths and it was coronavirus/rotavirus.  We proceeded to vaccinate with killed virus vaccine the pregnant cows before next calving season and the problem were solved. More and more this is becoming a problem even further north.

It is best to vaccinate the pregnant cows against this disease so that the antibodies are transmitted through the colostrum to the newborn calves so they can fend off the disease.

Since then, white scours have not been a problem and calves are healthy from day one until weaning.

Another practice that has helped make calving season easier has been to inject selenium plus vitamin E to our pregnant cows before calving season as antibodies have a trace element as its nucleus and we need a strong immune response in our newborn calves.  Many times selenium is deficient and of course, other prerequisites need to be in place and are detailed to my Real Wealth Ranching students.

These and other actions that we can take before the calving season are important for peace of mind and profitability.

Ready to have a smooth and successful calving season?

I have put together a list of the 5 most important tips to ensure that you have an optimal calving season.

These tips will give you the key areas you need to focus on to set up your calving season to:

✔️Be peaceful and hassle free at a low cost
✔️Increase the fertility in your cow herd
✔️Maximize the number of calves produced in your ranch or farm EACH year!

Download here: https://www.rwranching.com/5tipsforsuccessfulcalvingseason