An upcoming ProviCo Calf Health Forum will provide an excellent opportunity for the industry to gain insights from international experts while connecting with fellow professionals.

Scheduled for March 6 at the NEC Hangar (Essendon FC High Performance Centre) in Tullamarine, the event will feature the evolution of calf rearing over the decades and the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Sessions include:

• health and disease management

• nutritional requirements

• growth objectives

• mammary development

• managing social and environmental challenges

A highlight of the forum will be guest speakers Dr Liz Cox and Dr Leon ‘Sam’ Barringer.

Dr Cox is a veterinary graduate of UC Davis with 14 years of dairy experience.

She has focused on the young animal life stage throughout her career by advising on health, nutrition, welfare and employee training to those caring for dairy calves.

Dr. Cox was a pioneer of thoracic ultrasound in calves as an objective assessment of lung health and published a paper on the subject. She helped found the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council and served as president of the organizations.

While working on the Cattle Technical Services team at Merck Animal Health, Dr. Cox developed DairyCare modules in addition to supporting sales team and producers in the field.

At Land O’Lakes Dr. Cox focused on young dairy calf nutrition in the Western United States model of large operations and also learned about feeding preweaned calves by pairing a milk program with calf grain to give the producer their desired result.

Dr. Barringer specialises in calf and feedlot health management, epidemiology, evidence based population medicine, disease outbreak investigation, and thoracic ultrasonography for BRD assessment.

Dr. Barringer earned his D.V.M. from the University of California, Davis in 1991. After graduating and serving in private practice, he accepted an Associate Professor position at West Virginia University (WVU).

After six years at WVU, he joined Pfizer Animal Health and has worked for Merck Animal Health and served on the faculty at the United States Air Force Academy.

Dr. Barringer is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Academy of Veterinary Consultants (recently awarded 2023 Veterinary Consultant of the Year) and has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed papers.