Antibiotic use in today’s animal agricultural industries is heavily scrutinized by the public due to increased risk of antibiotic resistance of pathogens. Development of these antibiotic resistant pathogens causes great concern for both the welfare of animals and the potential of today’s antibiotics becoming ineffective for human health. Modifications of the Veterinary Feed Directive has limited the concerns with human health but productivity of dairy calves remains a topic necessitating discussion with regards to prophylactic use of antibiotics. Pre-weaned dairy calves are often fed a milk replacer containing antibiotics (medicated) and antibiotics are additionally used to treat health conditions such as scours and respiratory disease. While many feed medical milk replacers as part of a preventative program, recent studies have shown that the overuse of antibiotics in healthy pre-weaned dairy calves can potentially have a negative effect on their growth and can even lead to increased morbidity cases. These studies also suggest that restricting the use of medicated milk replacers and only therapeutically treating calves with antibiotics, increases the daily feed intake and average daily gain of calves. Further, in healthy calf groups, morbidity and mortality rates did not differ whether calves were fed a non-medicated versus medicated replacer. The additional incentive to a producer is a reduced price point for milk replacer. Coupled with higher rates of gain, this represents significant economic value. Producers must work to improve management programs to ensure healthy calf groups and reduce reliance of medicated milk replacers as preservation of today’s antibiotics and the reduction of antibiotic resistance needs to be a top priority for dairy producers. Judicious use of antibiotics correlates to improved calf health, growth, and financial incentive while simultaneously reducing the use of antibiotics in otherwise healthy calves. Restricting antibiotics to only a therapeutic use in dairy calves represents a sustainable future for dairy producers.