Effects of Source of Trace Minerals and Plane of Nutrition on Growth and Health of Transported Male Dairy Calves

Growth and health in newborn dairy calves are highly related, and can be impaired by several stressors such as transportation, colostrum deprivation, and poor maternal nutrition. However, these stressors can be mitigated by good management and adequate early nutrition. Quality of management may vary among dairies but adequate early nutrition might be able to be more consistently controlled. A common practice is to encourage early starter consumption by feeding limited amounts of milk replacer to lower feeding cost in conventional nutrition programs. In contrast, feeding increased amounts of milk replacer of higher protein content (accelerated, intesnsified, or enhanced nutrition) improves early growth performance. However, it has been suggested that these intensified nutrition programs might have a negative effect on health status and, consequently, on overall production cost, particularly in stressed calves.