The I-29 Dairy Outreach Consortium is scheduled to hold a one-day "Raising Your Best Calf Ever" workshop for dairy producers and heifer growers on Jan. 8, 2015, at the Baymont Inn (formerly Best Western) Seven Seas in Mandan, North Dakota.

"Heifer calves are the future of the herd," said J.W. Schroeder, NDSU Extension Service dairy specialist and consortium member. "Whether you raise your own or contract with others, raising the best heifer ever will go a long way toward ensuring success of the milking herd."

The consortium is a partnership of the Extension Service dairy specialists from North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.

Topics include: pros and cons of automatic calf feeders, when tube ventilation does and does not work, milk replacers: accelerated vs. nonaccelerated growth feeding, heifer diets and dried distillers grains with solubles feeding considerations, calf health and an update on the veterinary feed directive.

The cost is $50 per person, if registering by Dec. 30, and $65 afterward. Special student rates are $20 if registering by Dec. 30 and $25 following that date. Online registration is available at http://igrow.org or contact Tracey Erickson, South Dakota State University dairy field specialist at the Watertown Regional Extension Center, at 605-882-5140 or tracey.erickson@sdstate.edu.

For more information about the workshop, contact Schroeder at 701- 231-7663 or jw.schroeder@ndsu.edu.

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