How the circumstances of dairy calf birth and immediate post-birth management affect health, welfare, and survival outcomes.
The birth and first hours of life are the highest-risk period for dairy calf welfare, when appropriate management can prevent the major diseases that cause prolonged suffering in early life. The critical interventions - timely colostrum provision, navel disinfection, hypothermia prevention - are well established and relatively inexpensive, yet variation in their application is substantial between farms. Calves that receive inadequate colostrum or are subjected to hypothermia without intervention have higher rates of scours, pneumonia, and joint ill that cause weeks of suffering. Investment in first-day management protocols is one of the highest-welfare-per-cost interventions available in dairy production.