Dairy
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This guide to housing preweaned dairy calves is a resource for both farmers and youth participating in livestock projects. Housing can greatly impact the health and growth of dairy calves. Attention to factors that influence feed intake, comfort, and health are necessary for optimum growth and performance of calves, with long-term implication for their future productivity.
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Selecting commercial dairy heifers and monitoring their growth can be difficult for many farmers and youth exhibitors. The way in which farmers are achieving production efficiency is highly variable from farm to farm, so this publication provides guidance on the conformation and growth parameters of commercial heifers found to be most ideal for future production efficiency.
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Every animal emerging from the pasture or barn needs time and attention to get her show-ring ready. The showman on the other end of the halter needs to be prepared as well. Faults in either fitting or showing could lead to a less successful show experience than one might have hoped for. This publication offers advice on fitting and showing dairy animals, including the updated PDCA scorecard, maximizing your animal’s potential, behavior and grooming preparation, and show time.
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AP 130-3-06
2025 Georgia Dairy Forecast
1. The Georgia dairy forecast for 2025 is steady to positive.
2. Key uncertainties come from the balance of supply and demand and potential federal order reform.
3. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and export risks may also play a role in the year ahead.|
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Allowing dairy cows the opportunity to graze pasture is a practice frequently used by dairy producers. Some producers use grazing as the primary source of forage while others use it as a supplement to a partial total mixed ration (pTMR). There are several challenges associated with grazing—especially during periods of heat stress—that producers should take into account to maintain intake and production, especially when grazing comprises a significant amount of the feed allotment. This bulletin will provide information on these challenges and changes that can be used to minimize the impact of heat stress.
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B 1500
Calf Health Basics
Calf health is a key variable for calf growth and performance. Producers should not expect to know all calf health issues, causes, and the most successful treatments. Instead, a producer’s main goal should be to accurately identify and differentiate normal from abnormal in a calf’s physical state and behavior. The topics discussed in this publications are intended to help producers notice key areas of observation while also helping to identify normal and abnormal health parameters in calves. This information can also be used to develop calf management protocols and treatment strategies.
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C 553
Bull Buyer’s Guide
Bull procurement decisions can greatly impact your future calf crops and herd genetics for many years. Selecting and buying a herd bull is the quickest way to make genetic improvement in your herd. The selection process must include looking for those traits that are economically important and highly heritable. Demand and buy bulls with total performance that will improve your herd. This publication discusses factors to consider when purchasing a new bull.
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Cow behavior is critical for animal well-being and performance and influenced by many factors, such as heat stress. Under thermo-neutral conditions, cows spend half a day lying down and the rest of the time is distributed into standing, feeding and milking. However, when cows are exposed to heat stress, they spend less time lying down but more time standing up. The altered cattle behavior by heat stress may be associated with impaired productive and reproductive performance and an increase in disease incidence.
This publication focuses on the impacts of environmental heat stress on cattle behavior and the possibly related consequences.
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This bulletin provides information for producers, nutritionists, and feed industry personnel on formulating diets to maintain or improve milk composition. The value of milk components is increasing more than skim milk, so this topic impacts all dairy farmers. The publication provides information on feeding dairy cows for improved yield of milk components, providing background on how the cow synthesizes milk components and the dietary factors that affect milk component yield.
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