Heifer care and management

Management Considerations in Holstein Heifer Development

By Michael Looper, Extension Dairy Specialist, Greg Bethard, Technical Services Specialist, Monsanto Dairy Business, College of Agriculture and Home Economics.

Table of Contents

Why 1250 pounds?
Why 24 Months?
Monitor gains
Rations
Economics of 1250 pounds at 24 months
Summary
References

Print This Page Early Heifer Development and Colostrum Management

By Tom Bailey, Extension Specialist, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine; Julia M. Murphy, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine; and Robert James, Professor of Dairy Science, Virginia Tech.

Improving animal feed efficiency with alternative dairy heifer feeding scenarios

Raising dairy heifers from birth to calving comprises the second largest expense of milk production on the dairy farm—while deriving no revenue until the onset of lactation (Heinrichs, 1993). Therefore, many of the experiments involving dairy heifers have focused on ways to minimize costs associated with the growth period or to hasten onset of the productive period. Reducing the length of the growing period by decreasing the age at first calving below 22-24 months could overcome this lag between expenditure and revenue generation and reduce costs associated with the nonproductive period. This could be accomplished by increasing prepubertal average daily gain (ADG; Hoffman, 1997), which would subsequently result in a lower age at first breeding and presumably a lower age at first calving. Although this strategy would ultimately accelerate the return on investment, high rates of prepubertal ADG have a negative impact on mammary development (Radcliff et al., 1997; Sejrsen et al., 1982) and first lactation milk yield (Lammers et al., 1999; Radcliff et al., 2000; Van Amburgh et al., 1998). A summary of recent literature on the association between prepubertal ADG and first lactation milk production showed total first lactation milk and protein yield were maximized when prepubertal ADG was around 800 g/d for Holstein heifers (Zanton and Heinrichs, 2005).

A new paradigm for heifer nutrition: cut manure output 20 to 40%

Feeding strategies for post-weaned dairy heifers, 2 to 6 months of age

What is the maximum worth of a dairy heifer?