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.

In this quick video, MacDonald compares a sample of traditional, instantized milk replacer blend, versus the Autofeeder Blend.

One of the most helpful, non-antibiotic additives developed for preweaned calves in the past several decades is mannan oligosaccharides, or MOS.

If you’re a calf raiser, you probably mix hundreds, if not thousands, of batches of milk replacer every year. It’s a task that becomes second nature in your daily routine. Here are some key steps to feeding accurately and preventing mixing errors.

Not all milk replacers are created equally. It’s important to understand what’s in the bag to be sure the product fits the farm’s objectives when it comes to growing calves. Milk replacer tags are written in a fairly standard format, but can be somewhat confusing to end users.