Advances in the understanding of risk factors and biomarkers in calves entering rearing facilities show promise for identifying high-risk calves upon arrival at veal and dairy beef operations. Rapid, on farm machine leukocyte differential cell counts (DCC) may be a good addition to calf risk identification protocols for implementing selective antimicrobial therapy strategies upon arrival. The objective of this study was to assess the utility of DCC taken at the time of arrival to a calf rearing facility and 72-h post arrival for determining mortality risk during the production cycle. From June to July 2018, blood samples collected in EDTA anticoagulant from 233 calves upon arrival and a subset of 158 calves 72 h post arrival to a veal research facility in Ontario, Canada were evaluated by the QScout BLD test for leukocyte differential cell counts (Advanced Animal Diagnostic, Morrisville, NC). Over the production cycle, 39/233 calves died including 30/158 calves in the 72-h post arrival subset. All calves received a risk assessment upon arrival to the facility using a standardized screening protocol and a blood sample was collected to evaluate serum total protein (TP). Preliminary univariable survival analysis using Cox proportional hazards models suggest that on the day of arrival every 1 g/dL increase in TP lowers the risk of mortality (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.38; P < 0.001). At 72 h post-arrival, it was found that for every 10⁹ cells/L increase in neutrophils the risk of mortality increased (HR = 1.12; P = 0.007). Of the 30 calves that died from the 72 h post arrival subset, only 15 received antibiotic treatment in the first 3 d of life. Machine DCC taken 72 h after the stress of transport has potential for use in selective antimicrobial therapy protocols with the purpose of reducing antimicrobial use without sacrifice to animal health and welfare in veal and dairy beef facilities.