Are you feeding electrolytes at the same time as the milk replacer? Best to feed the electrolytes a couple of hours before or after the milk feeding.
Cold can stress a calf, but we calve in the snow, are at high altitude, and have below zero winters. However, our climate has low humidity, and I think that helps.
More important than climate, I think, are the strength of the calf's immune system and cleanliness or absence of disease organisms in the calf's housing area. The calves should receive good quality colostrum in a timely manner after calving. By good quality, I mean either from their own mothers (and hopefully those mothers have been on a regular vaccination routine) or colostrum from your herd. Feeding diary colostrum (for example) to a beef calf is better than no colostrum at all, but it won't contain all the antibodies colostrum from a mature cow in your own herd will contain.
> is cold weather that much a factor
> on young calves, we have another
> one sick and he has the scours
> last one was eating and didnt have
> scours and the next morning dead
> this one probably will be in the
> morning its -2 degrees here
> tonight we need some help they
> were doin fine til the cold set
> in. they also have the shakes and
> the milk replacer is high fat we
> have heat lamps on and plenty of
> hay. hes drinking electrolytes as
> well
