When it comes to raising healthy calves, sometimes it’s the details you can’t see that make all the difference.

Acidification of milk and milk replacer is a practice that has been around for a long time, with ebbs and flows of popularity. It involves adding an organic acid to lower the pH of the liquid ration to manage the growth of detrimental bacteria.

Dairy calf management systems have changed considerably compared to past decades. Today, many dairies do not raise their calves on-site due to larger facilities, specialized management focus, and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) considerations. Now, many baby calves of a week old or less are being transported across multiple states to be raised at dedicated calf nursery enterprises.

If there’s one, single “secret” to raising healthy calves, it’s the timely delivery of high-quality colostrum to every one of them. We’re still learning about all the “goodies” colostrum delivers. A lot of emphasis is placed on immunoglobulins, particularly IgG, because they can be measured on-farm.

Experienced calf raisers know that scours and pneumonia are the two most common and frustrating health challenges they battle in their animals. What we’re learning now is that the two diseases have some common denominators.

When calf milk replacer became commercially available decades ago, adding antibiotics like oxytetracycline, neomycin, and chlortetracycline was a common practice. Often these were delivered at “sub-therapeutic” levels, meaning they were not intended to treat disease, but rather to promote growth.

Taking care of calves that are born perfectly healthy and strong—only to break with scours within a few days of birth through 10 days—is a highly frustrating scenario.