Rearing a successful heifer starts at birth and not later when she is already pregnant or close to calving, says Riaan van der Walt, ruminant technical manager at Meadow Feeds. In this edition of the Farmer’s Inside Track podcast, he discusses the impact of successful heifer rearing to achieve a more profitable dairy operation.
According to Van der Walt, research literature commonly reports that heifer maturity and target weight plays a big role in the dairy cow’s production lifetime.
“It is generally accepted that body weight at calving is more important than maturity. A 95% positive correlation has been reported between first lactation milk at 70 days in milk and the milking herd average. Although it is costly, it would be better to breed an animal 6 to 8 weeks later on target rather than calving her earlier but under target.”
Van der Walt calculates that a Holstein that is 5% below target weight could produce 1.8 litres less than her peers that were calved down at the right target weight.
In this episode, Van der Walt also discusses:
- Finding the balance between maturity and body weight at first calving.
- The downsides of less-than-optimal heifer rearing.
Want to know more? Listen to the full episode of Farmer’s Inside Track.
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Option 3: Click here to listen on Google Podcast.
READ NEXT: Guidelines for successful heifer rearing
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