Tioga County Dairy Day Topics Focus On Dry Cow, Heifer Management
(ContlniMd from Pago A 1)
that knowledge is meant to be
shared.
Highlighting changing techno
logies was Pennsylvania DHIA
marketing manager Tom Smith
who touched on just a few techno
logies that will get the information
to you faster and more efficiently
through the use of computers.
Penn State Dairy Specialist Jud
Heinrichs examined the bottom
line in heifer growing when ques
tioned breeders about average age
of calving and the heifer feeding
programs.
“There are two things I look at,”
said Heinrichs. “What is the age at
calving and how big is she when
she calves?”
He noted that the average age of
calving has steadily declined. In a
1991 report, Holstein heifers were
close to 24 months on average and
Jersey heifers were close to 22
months on average.
Heinrichs also stated that the
size of the heifer at first calving has
a tremendous impact on total pro
duction during her first lactation.
“If she comes in small, she will
grow a lot during the first lacta
tion,” he said.
In one study, Heinrichs showed
that increasing the body weight of
a Holstein by 100 pounds at first
calving will increase milk produc
tion by 475 pounds in her first
lactation.
‘Ten years ago as the average
age of first calving was around 27
months, people got more milk in
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the first lactation. Therefore the
old adage was bom that older heif
ers make mote milk. I content that
the older heifers were probably the
larger heifers,” he said. “From
1994 data we see that heifers
calved at 23 months made as much
milk as those calved at 28 months.
Now people are seeing earlier
calving heifers make as much milk
as later calving heifers. That tells
me that heifers are getting larger at
an earlier age.” Knowing how
large those heifers are is also
important.
“I found a lot of people could
decrease the age of calving by tap
ing the heifers and finding out
exactly what they weigh. The
problem with the tapes is feat there
is bad data from old research. If
you take the time to use fee weight
tape, make sure the data is up to
date.”
To get those larger heifers,
Heinrichs notes that forage testing
for heifers is critical.
“Forage testing and feed prog
ramming are fundamentally
important,” said Heinrichs.
He emphasized his point by say
ing that 80 to 90 percent of a heif
er’s dry mater intake comes from
forages. If you don’t test fee for
age. it is essentially an unknown
source of nutrients.
“When you say heifer hay, peo
ple laugh. Everyone knows what it
is. You’ve got to feed it to some
one. You can’t feed it to your
cows, they won’t milk. Hopefully
you’ll only feed it to your yearling
heifers. But you’ve got to know if
it’s five percent or eight or ten per
cent protein,” said Heinrichs.
The younger calves and heifers,
from three to six months, need
good hay.
“Minerals are especially impor
tant as well as protein wife the
calves and heifers. They’re laying
a lot of bone structure down,”
Heinrichs said. “After six months
they slow down in growth, the
rumen is larger, so they can handle
mote dry matter. Also fee nutrients
can be less (dense) because they’re
consuming mote dry matter.”
Heinrichs also touched on the
different by product feeds avail
able, including milk teplacer, and
fee availability of ionophores such
as Rumens in or Bovatec.
“What ionophores do is change
fee functionality in fee rumen and
make it more efficient. It changes
fee acetic to propionic acid ratio,
fee animals lose less methane and
make mote energy. They also inhi
bit ammonia production,” said
Heinrichs.
Environment can also have a
major impact on growth rate in
heifers. Included in this is the feed
bunk space and repair, the num
bers of animals and fee age spread
in fee group, the water availability,
and the time feed is available.
Changing his focus to calf nutri
tion from birth to weaning, Hein
rich noted that it is important to get
the rumen functioning as soon as
possible.
He recommends offering a
palatable grain mix to the calves as
early as possible and offering free
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FARM TOUR
(Sertmmta
Wed., February 19 th & Thurs. February 20 th
“It was very enjoyable to see and experience other dairy'farms. There were
several particular ides that we could bring home and use. Everyone
thoroughly enjoyed themselves. ”
"The trip to New York was a good time and very informative. I saw a iot of
large dairies in just a couple o days without being rushed around. It was a
well-planned trip for anyone who is looking to expand his operation. ”
Andrew Laffey - Glennville Farm
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19™
Leave Lancaster Shopping Center 5:45 a.m.
• We travel to Midwestern New York and visit two (2) dairies and later meet another group
of dairymen from Minnesota & Wisconsin.
• Dinner & lodging in the Bativa, NY area.
• Producer meeting hosted by Rolf Reisgies, president of Germania. Topic “The Lowest
Cost of Any Parlor.”
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20™
• Visit 3-4 more dairies & return to Lancaster at approximately 9:00 p.m.
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choice water.
“Calves can easily be weaned at
four to six weeks. Not every calf
every day, ” Heinrichs said, “but
most can. At that time they’re eat
ing I.S to two pounds minimum
grain per day.”
Heinrich backed up his point
wife a study that showed that no
matter what the age of weaning
between three and eight weeks, the
calfs growth jumped tremendous
ly at weaning and basically evened
out.
“We got the rumen going faster
and ended up with the same output
There’s really no logic in waiting.
The longer you wait to wean, the
longer you slow down rumen
development” said Heinrichs.
Tying into the nutrition discus
sion was Penn State Graduate stu
dent Dana Putman. He focused pri
marily on feeding the dry cow to
move them into the milking string
without any problems.
"There’s probably no period in a
cow’s life cycle where there are
more challenges then pre
calving,” said Putman.
This period presents a challenge
because the cow’s nutritional
needs are high, but it’s difficult to
get her to eat enough. Therefore,
you have a cow that’s prone to
disease.
“There is a lot of research
focused on the transition period.
We’re now seeing that the more
milk produced on day one of her
lactation, the more milk she will
produce during the entire lacta
tion,” Putman noted.
He contended that most farms
could do a better job with the trans
ition cows with very little addition-
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al investment.
“You need a good sense of what
the animals arc,” said Putman.
The basic information needed is
the body weight and body condi
tion of the cow, her dry matter
intake, a forage and feed analysis,
and a feed management strategy.
He suggested breaking the dry
cows into distinct groups, an early
group at -60 to -22 days; a close-up
group at -21 to 0 days, and a fresh
cow group from 0 to 14 days.
His recommendations for feed
ing early dry cows included no
more than SO percent com silage,
no more than 30 percent legume
forage, feeding five to 10 pounds
of long forage, and three to five
pounds of grain.
For the close-up cow he recom
mends increasing the grain to six to
eight pounds per day and feeding
the forage and grain from the milk
ing cow ration. He stresses, how
ever that you must watch the potas
sium and calcium levels and you
should keep protein between 12
and 16 percent of dry matter
intake.
After calving, Putman recom
mends maximizing dry matter
intake, increasing grain to eight to
12 pounds per day gradually, feed
ing five toeightpounds of long hay
and putting them on the milking
cow diet
Knowing the body weight will
determine the nutrient require
ments of the animal.
“The (body weight) must be
measured. It’s difficult to do, espe
cially with a pregnant cow. Body
weight varies tremendously. The
body condition score is probably
(Turn to Page A2B)
Richard Rohrer