The U.S and Canada dairy industries have some similarities, but also some differences. In 2022, there were 27,932 licensed dairy farms in the US with 9,403,000 cows for 337 cows per herd and averaged annually 24,087 lb milk per cow (Geiger 2023). By contrast, in Canada in 2022 there were 972,300 cows on 9,739 farms with about 100 cows per herd which averaged 9,700 liters or about 21,000 lb per cow annually (Canada dairy industry 2022). Thus, the major difference is smaller herd size in Canada due to their supply management program.

With this as background, a comparison within these countries’ dairy population was done of calf management and welfare (Roche et al., 2023). This was done primarily by a group at the Ontario Veterinary College which along with others in animal science at the University of Guelph have done major beneficial studies related to calves.

Dr. Al Kertz joins us to share the highlights of that research and his insights on those findings.