Calves

For their first two months after birth the calves are bottle-fed whole milk that is pasteurized at the Dairy. They are also given starter grain and alfalfa hay. At about 4-5 months old, the heifer calves go to Indiana Academy in Cicero Indiana where they stay until they come back and re-join the home herd shortly before they have their first calf at 2 years old.

The ratio of bull calves to heifer calves per year is around 340:450. This is due to our use of 'sexed semen' which has been sorted for x-chromosome bearing sperm cells in order to get more femails than the 50:50 ration that is usual. We use the sexed semen in our first-calf heifers so that they will have a heifer calf which is smaller and easier to deliver.

Research projects including the following have been conducted with our calves:


  • "Growth and incidence of scouring in Holstein calves fed high fat (28%) milk replacer (MR) compared to those fed lower fat (20%) milk replacer." Results showed that the calves fed high fat milk replacer grew better and started eating their starter grain better than those on the lower fat replacer, and they did not have more scours (diarrhea) than the low fat group.
  • "Suckling latency in neonatal Holstein calves." This study scored for a year how well each newborn calf nursed when first offered a bottle after birth. The results showed that 78% of the calves nursed right away but those that were slow to get started had a 1% greater level of inbreeding on average.
  • Honor students have also studied the calves for their Senior Research Projects
  1. Causes of early calfhood scours (Karen Peterson)
  2. The effectiveness of pasteurization of colostrum on the prevention of Johne's disease in dairy calves. (Jolene Birney)