Most dairy farmers want to operate their farms profitably, and we know that one of the pillars of dairy farm profitability is getting as much milk output from each cow as feasible. One of the most important aspects in that trip is how heifers are cared for, and if they calf before the age of two, they are more likely to have a large lifetime productivity.
Large lifetime output does not come easily, and achieving that aim for the herd is a significant task.
We’ve seen far too frequently that heifers aren’t the farmer’s priority, at least not until they give birth and develop into cows. This error is probably more widespread than many people realize. But we also know that if a heifer is not properly raised, the chances of her developing into a highly productive and long-lasting cow are slim.
I often tell farmers that they should treat their heifers like the money-making machines they can be in the future, particularly during the initial months of her life. Here, we construct the farm’s future cow.
Holstein’s full potential
A suitable Holstein heifer with a normal genetic background has the DNA necessary to produce a high-yielding cow. When she is born, her DNA is set for high production, but you might say that after that, our main task is to try to make sure she can get full usage of that potential. Small errors in rearing will be seen in the yield, thus it is critical to concentrate on the heifer and her well-being.
Of course, there are several methods for raising heifers, as well as numerous methods for monitoring their progress. Farmers may use a variety of KPIs to monitor how things are going, but one KPI in particular provides a wealth of information for me: daily weight growth.
Cow weight growth on a daily basis
What the daily gain should be varies per farm and, of course, depends on the dairy breed, but for Holstein heifers, any daily increase less than 850 grammes per day should give the farmer cause to reconsider management. The essential point here is that the farmer sets a daily development goal and follows through on it. Without a doubt, any mistakes in the heifer’s rearing will have an impact on daily development. Slow average development right initially indicates certain management concerns, such as a poor environment, sickness, improper nutrition, and so on. As a result, frequent weighing will rapidly disclose whether anything is wrong with heifer management.
I’m not advocating that all heifers be weighed all the time, but recording daily growth will provide valuable information. It is simplest to weigh the calves upon birth, and there are various basic methods for doing so; any simple industrial scale will suffice. Then, when the heifer is old enough, I always urge farmers weigh it again at weaning and provide the correct quantity of concentrate or TMR. With these two measures, it is simple to compute her daily growth in the first few months of life. This time represents the cow’s future; if she has made solid and strong leaps forward with correct development, she is already more likely to become a nice cow at this point.After the calf has been weaned
After weaning, there is a sensitive time in which growth frequently decreases. This is most usually caused by improper weaning, in which the milk was not appropriately supplemented with excellent concentrate or TMR. Weighing heifers at 4 months is a difficult chore, particularly if there are a lot of them, therefore I would not encourage it. However, keeping note of the height is a simple approach to keep track of the development here. This may be accomplished by painting a stripe on the inventory so that it is simple to tell how high they are while eating. Of course, if it is feasible, it is ideal to weigh them and monitor their development until they are hefty enough to be inseminated in time to give birth before they are two years old.
The most important factor, though, is that the farmer concentrates on growth and correctly monitors and measures it. It is up to each farmer how they do this, but I can guarantee that everyone who does so will be on the way to higher dairy farm outcomes.
