Dairy calves always been so vulnerable?

I think a huge part of the problem is genetics. I've bottle raised alot of calves. The highlanders and the beef mixes are strong. They want to suck, they want to get up and they seem to thrive. The holstein calves don't. They are sluggish, no will to live, fragile things. Some many generations of breeding for that 100 pounds of milk a day cow instead of breeding for survivability. I see it here all the time. When you breed that holstein to a beef bull, the calves seem like some kind of super creature.

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I'm not sure if cows have followed the same trend, but I have noticed in certain breeds of sheep, generally show type/registered, a lack of will to survive in lambs. Many of these same lambs also have low resistance to parasites and not as much vigor. My crossbreeds are up and running even in frigid temps, but some of the purebreds I've gotten have to be quite babied to keep them alive. Many of the bottle calves bought are purebred , generally dairy cows. Do they care much about how well the calves survive when their main concern is milk production?
I suspect like somebody else said it is a case of experience in management too. People valued their beasts more in the past because they needed that one calf to put meat or milk on the table eventually. I wonder about milk replacer too.

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Claycreekfarm.info

Anybody who takes the time to peruse a catalog of the available sires will see that although milk is a major factor, every aspect of the modern dairy cow is being tweeked, from how her udder looks to how her hocks set. It is about keeping the dairy cow alive and making that milk.
You can't make milk if you lose your replacements.......
It may seem like calf mortality is up, but if you hang around here where the majority of calves are bought from a sales barn and hauled God knows how far to an ill conceived place to live that may have all ready seen the demise of several ill fated, disease ridden calves, and cared for by well meaning but not so well trained individuals then I suppose the numbers may be skewed towards the bad.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

conformation is not the same as survivability

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