The Healthy Calf Conference is known for our impressive line-up of speakers, sharing practical advice with our audience of progressive calf raisers. Scroll down to meet this year’s speakers!
Christine Murray-Kerr grew up on a veal and cash crop farm in Haldimand County. She graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Animal Science) in 2010 and completed a Ph.D. in epidemiology at the Ontario Veterinary College. During her Ph.D., she studied the effects of dystocia on newborn calf vitality and developed a VIGOR score assessment tool to assist producers in making decisions around pain management therapy and the implications on the future health and performance of the calf.
Following her Ph.D., she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary, investigating how the VIGOR score could be applied to newborn beef calves. In 2014, she joined Trouw Nutrition Canada as a Ruminant Nutrition Research Scientist exploring different nutritional strategies to improve calf performance and increase profitability for producers. In 2023, she became Quality & Nutrition Manager at Grober Nutrition.
Colostrum feeding strategies and colostrum supplementation beyond day one
Hannah McCarthy, M.Sc., University of Guelph
Hannah McCarthy is a Ph.D. student at the University of Guelph studying calf nutrition under Dr. Mike Steele and Dr. Dave Renaud. Her interest in the dairy industry started through her experiences working on a local dairy farm as a teenager. This sparked a passion for agriculture and led her to complete a B.Sc. at Dalhousie University and a M.Sc. specializing in calf nutrition at the University of Guelph. Currently her research focuses on colostrum nutrition and feeding strategies, with a goal to improve calf health and welfare through nutrition.
Impact of colostrum consumption at birth and marketing feeding strategies in the recovery of dairy-beef calves after transportation
Lucía Pisoni, DVM, Ph.D., University of Guelph
Lucía Pisoni holds a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the National University of La Plata, Argentina. She completed her M.Sc. at Ohio State University, where she focused on nutrition and intestinal physiology in Holstein heifers. Driven by her interest in calf nutrition, she continued her studies with a Ph.D. in Ruminant Production at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) in Spain, where her research focused on the development of nutritional strategies to improve the recovery of dairy-beef calves after transport.
Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Guelph where she is exploring nutrition and physiology in calves. Her research focuses on the use of extended colostrum feeding strategies to effectively reduce the incidence of disease during the pre-weaning period.
When should we treat a diarrheic calf with antimicrobial drugs?
Luiza Stachewski Zakia, DVM, University of Guelph
Luiza Stachewski Zakia is a board-certified veterinarian in large animal internal medicine. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of Guelph, where her research centers on neonatal calf diarrhea and the care of systemically ill calves. She aims to develop a treatment algorithm to reduce the unnecessary use of antimicrobial drugs in calves, and her focus extends to creating practical tools that can be applied in clinical settings, aiming to bridge the gap between clinical practice and research.
Charlotte Winder is an Associate Professor in Population Medicine at the University of Guelph and a clinician in the university’s Ruminant Field Service. She is passionate about bridging the gap between research and industry, and her research focuses on helping farmers with practical solutions that improve the health and welfare of dairy cattle. She also teaches in the DVM program at the Ontario Veterinary College.
She received her DVM from the University of Guelph in 2007 and worked in private practice for six years. In 2017, she graduated from Guelph with her DVSc., and joined the faculty in 2018. She is also a board member with the Ontario Association of Bovine Practitioners.
Kathleen Shore has been a nutritionist in the Canadian feed industry for 18 years. She graduated from the University of Guelph with an M.Sc. in Ruminant Nutrition and has been playing with calves, heifers and cows ever since. For the past five years, she has been a nutritionist with Grand Valley Fortifiers balancing rations, visiting cows, heifers and calves and providing whatever nutrition service their customers need.
Aaron Keunen is part of Mapleview Agri Ltd., a business based in Palmerston, Ontario specializing in the manufacturing of milk replacer, as well as Truvital Animal Health, an animal health business that has provided science-based solutions for calf health and performance since 2020. With a passion for agriculture and agribusiness, Aaron enjoys working with producers to help find solutions to improve the health and performance of their animals. As a farmer and partner in Keunen Cattle Ltd. he also has experience raising approximately 2,000 calves per year.
Cynthia Miltenburg is a veterinarian and graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College where she earned her DVM and DVSc. degrees. After several years in large animal practice, her graduate research focused on strategies to improve transition cow health and immune function.
She is currently Lead Veterinarian Animal Health and Welfare with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness, where she provides scientific expertise in veterinary science, epidemiology, and disease prevention and control related to animal, public, and environmental health with an emphasis on bovine health and welfare. She also co-leads the Bovine Ontario Animal Health Network, which works to coordinate preparedness, early detection, and response to animal disease.
Bart Pardon obtained his DVM from Ghent University in Belgium in 2007 and has been an associate professor large animal internal medicine at the university since 2020. He is a European Board of Veterinary Specialization-recognized specialist in bovine health management and achieved his certification from the European College of Bovine Health Management in 2016. In addition to his work in the clinic, he offers herd health consulting in the areas of calf health and infectious diseases. His Ph.D. work dealt with morbidity, mortality and drug use in white veal calves with emphasis on respiratory disease, and his work served as a reboot of veal calf research as it coincided with the increased pressure to reduce antimicrobial use in food animals in the European Union.
His research group works on calf health, specifically respiratory disease with a focus on improved diagnostics and decision support tools to ultimately reduce antimicrobial use. He has authored over 130 peer-reviewed publications and is a frequently asked speaker at international conferences. In 2023 he co-founded qTUS, a UGhent spin-off company bringing his work on the control of respiratory disease to practice with emphasis on training in lung ultrasonography.
Michael Nagorske grew up on a grain and cattle farm in southwestern Minnesota which continues to consist of corn, soybeans, and a registered Angus seed-stock business. He attended the University of Minnesota where he received his DVM and B.Sc. in Veterinary Science. During his veterinary studies, he completed the Dairy Production Medicine course at the University of Minnesota, which serves as the National Center of Excellence in Dairy Veterinary Medicine in the United States.
He has a strong passion for the continuous improvement of maximizing genetic potential in young calves through nutrition and disease mitigation, and he enjoys challenges related to calf health and nutrition in beef and dairy operations. As Director of Research for Saskatoon Colostrum Company Ltd., it is his standard to use evidence-based approaches for solutions, as well as challenge and influence research to provide the best answers for producers’ problems.
Healthy calves are the building blocks of every successful dairy and veal operation, and early management and rearing practices are a key component of raising a healthy, productive animal. Find practical ways to help your calves reach their full potential here.
The Codes of Practice are nationally developed guidelines for the care and handling of farm animals. They serve as our national understanding of animal care requirements and recommended practices.
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