Health and Blood Biochemistry of Dairy-Beef Calves on Arrival at Midwestern US Farms

48.3% of 1,436 calves arriving at 20 Midwestern US farms between February 2024 and January 2025 had diarrhea. This dataset, authored by Elizabeth Schafer, contains clinical health assessments and blood biochemistry results for calves approximately 3-7 days old, collected within hours of arrival. The study aimed to evaluate calf condition and identify factors associated with poor health outcomes in the dairy-beef supply chain.

Use Cases

• Predicting calf health outcomes based on arrival condition and source (e.g., dealer vs. direct farm).
• Analyzing the prevalence of failed transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) and its association with clinical disease.
• Modeling the co-occurrence of health issues like diarrhea, dehydration, and hypoglycemia in transported calves.
• Assessing the impact of transport and sourcing on energy reserves, indicated by blood NEFA and glucose levels.

Strengths

• Includes 1,436 calf observations with standardized clinical scoring.
• Provides blood biochemistry results for a subset of 327 calves.
• Data collection was temporally precise, occurring 6.4 ± 7.2 hours after calf arrival.
• Study design covers 20 farms across four Midwestern US states (IN, OH, WI, IA).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the full dataset is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Blood biochemistry data is only available for a subset of 11 farms.

Provenance

Source

Elizabeth Schafer via figshare.

Collection Method

Cross-sectional cohort study with standardized clinical assessments and blood sampling.

Time Range

February 2024 to January 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-22 06:37:15; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Dairy-beef calf-raising farms in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa, USA.