How to Improve Neonatal Beef Calf Health: A Hands-On Workshop Approach

Authors

• Gabriele Maier, University of California DavisFollow
• Essam Abdelfattah, University of California DavisFollow
• Erik Fausak, University of California DavisFollow

Volume

64

Issue

2

Abstract

Even though failure or inadequate transfer of passive immunity in beef calves is common, few interventions on the ranch address the issue. A workshop series that used calf simulators and live calves improved rancher knowledge on passive transfer and other topics relevant to neonatal calf health across operation sizes and experience levels. At the conclusion of the workshop, participants expressed a positive attitude towards using pain control for painful procedures in calves, with cost being the most important reason for not using it. Based on participant feedback, roundtable discussions would improve the workshop format.

Authors’ Contribution Statement

Gabriele Maier was involved in all parts of this project including funding procurement, workshop conceptualization, data collection, writing the original draft and review and editing of the manuscript. Essam Abdelfattah was involved in all parts of this project including funding procurement, workshop conceptualization, data collection, writing the original draft and review and editing of the manuscript. Erik Fausak was involved in conceptualization of the project, in particular conducting the literature search, and editing of the manuscript.

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The work described in this article was funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA),grant agreement number 22-1915-000-SG received by Gabriele Maier.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Maier, G., Abdelfattah, E., & Fausak, E. (2026). How to Improve Neonatal Beef Calf Health: A Hands-On Workshop Approach. Journal of Extension, 64(2), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.66752/1077-5315.5790