Early-life respiratory disease shapes dairy-beef crossbred cattle performance

BRD doesn’t always announce itself with a dramatic crash in gain. Sometimes it shows up months later where nobody expects it: on the rail, as lower marbling and a worse carcass grade. That’s the unsettling thread we pull on with Dr. Melissa Cantor of Pennsylvania State University, as we unpack what early-life respiratory disease means for beef on dairy, beef, and crossbred calves. 

We start where lifetime health really begins: colostrum management. Dr. Cantor explains how immunoglobulin G (IgG) transfer shapes passive immunity, antibiotic treatment risk, and even survival. From there we dig into why bovin...