To determine if preweaning plane of milk replacer nutrition (PON) influences health and performance of high risk Holstein bull calves, 36 Holstein bull calves (1d of age) from a commercial calf ranch were assigned to either a high (HPN; n = 18; 20% and 28% DM lipid and protein) or a low plane of milk replacer nutrition (LPN; n = 18; 20% DM lipid and protein) through weaning. Total serum protein concentrations confirmed that 72 and 76% of calves had failure of passive transfer (<5.2g/dL) in HPN and LPN, respectively. All calves were bottle fed twice daily, the LPN were fed 445 g DM/d of milk replacer until weaning, and the HPN calves were fed 830 g DM/d of milk replacer during the first 10 d and 1080 g from 11 d until weaning. Calf starter and water were offered ad libitum. Calves were step-down weaned beginning at 51 d and ending on 57 d. Data are reported as HPN vs. LPN throughout, respectively. Two of the 18 calves died in both treatments. There was a tendency (P = 0.100) for more HPN calves to bloat during the study (29.4 vs 6.7%). The HPN calves had greater (P = 0.007) incidence of scouring (66.7 vs. 22.2%), but there was no difference (P = 0.688) in the percentage of calves that received systemic antibiotics (47 vs. 40%). There was a time × PON interaction (P < 0.001) in weekly starter intake, where LPN ate more (P ≤ 0.004) starter during wk 6, 7, 8, and 9. There was a time × PON interaction (P = 0.017) in water intake, where LPN had greater (P ≤ 0.001) water intake throughout the study (3.6 vs. 2.3 ± 0.21L). There was a time × PON interaction (P < 0.001) in ADG, whereas HPN had greater (P ≤ 0.001) ADG from 0 to 25 d (0.53 vs. 0.08 ± 0.040kg/d), 0 to 49 d (0.60 vs. 0.23 ± 0.040kg/d), and 0 to 68 d (0.58 vs. 0.33 ± 0.049kg/d). There was also a time × PON interaction (P < 0.001) in F:G, whereas HPN had greater (P ≤ 0.054) efficiency from 0 to 25 d (1.7 vs. 5.8 ± 0.38), 0 to 49 d (1.8 vs. 3.7 ± 0.38), and 0 to 68 d (2.2 vs. 3.3 ± 0.38). Risk for bloat and scouring were greater for calves fed the HPN, but there was no difference in antibiotic treatment or mortality. Further, the HPN calves had greater performance over the preweaning period.