Management Tip: Protect Your Investment in Your Heifer Crop

Protecting your investment in your heifer herd has never been more important. We tend to put a lot of emphasis on genetic progress with our breeding programs but sometimes fail to partner that with a quality calf and heifer management program allowing animals to express their full genetic potential. Selection, development, and protection of your next generation will lead to improved productivity and profitability of your dairy operation.

Here are three management tips you can take to help your program succeed: 

1. Promote rumen development early. In order to make it a successful transition, make sure you’re only making one change at a time in a calf’s life. For example, keep grain consistent while weaning and don’t make any simultaneous housing or social adjustments. If you are feeding a higher volume of milk (2 gallons per day), starting the step-down process early (~35 days) will help encourage grain intake. It’s also important to make sure your starter grain is fresh, and adequate water is available. Grain consumption will be limited by a lack of water availability. This is an important consideration, especially in very hot or cold weather, particularly in programs that keep calves in individual housing where it can be a challenge to keep water in front of them.

1. Create a nutrition program. Traditionally, we switch heifers to more of a TMR type ration around 300 lbs. However, feeding higher grain diets (60:40 grain to forage) longer may improve average daily gain while reducing the cost of gain. In many situations, this means just pushing out the timeframe for switching heifers to a pre-breeding ration. It’s also a good idea to have a proactive approach to help deal with day-to-day stress and promote optimal performance and lifetime success. Consider implementing an immune support product that helps to directly support the calf’s immune system and further develops the calf into a ruminant animal. Be sure to work with your nutritionist to formulate specific rations catering to your ingredient availability and heifer growth goals.
2. Use metrics to guide success throughout the life stages. Adding a few data points like weaning and pre-breeding, on a subset of animals, even seasonally, can help you evaluate if you are missing out on growth opportunity. Calves should double birth weight by 60 days and heifers should weigh 55% of herd mature body weight at breeding. Mature body weight is established by weighing a subset of third plus lactation animals between 80-120 days in milk. The goal is to have heifers at 85% of mature body weight when they calve in. Many people believe that smaller heifers will eventually “catch-up” once they calve in. However, average annual herd production will be within one to two pounds of what the first lactation animals are producing during week 10 of lactation. These heifers set the ceiling for the herd.

These are the main critical control points you should focus on when looking to improve your heifer program. Working with industry professionals, such as your nutritionist and veterinarian, can help you to identify the biggest bottlenecks limiting your calf and heifer performance. Even the best programs will still have day to day challenges, but immune support products can help minimize the impact of stress, maintain gut integrity, and promote rumen development. In the end, this can help your program – and your herd – prosper.