Scott Williams
Training Coordinator
Call l-SOO-DHI-TEST , fax (814) 86S-3294
Web site http://wwH.dhia.psu.edu
Pennsylvania Dairy Herd Improvement Association
DHIA Service Center, Orchard Road, Unhereity Park, PA 16802
Dairyman To Dairyman
Question: A while back
you talked about freshening
heifers at a younger age and
poorer milk production as a
result. Did you recommend
that they go back to older
age freshening?
No! There are many good rea
sons for calving heifers near 24
months of age. The recommen
dation that I gave to these dairy
men was to address the needs of
the heifers so that size and age
disparity does not grow as we
decrease age at first calving.
First, here are some vary
good reasons to consider calving
heifers at 24 months of age
instead of the customary 28
months.
•Accumulation of additional
cost of rearing heifers for 120
days x cost per day (est. $1.50) =
$lBO
•Accumulation of heifer
replacements at the rate of 4.2%
per month (1 month divided by
24 months)
•Assuming equally produc
tive lives, increase in non-pro
ductive days
•Delay of milk income poten
tial
•Delay of genetic gains from
heifer replacement
The greater number of
heifers that tie up cash flow can
be offset by the sale of replace
ments to other dairies as long as
cull rates remain reasonable at
near 33%. In reality, this seldom
happens and cull rates over 40%
are often seen. This puts a great
deal of pressure on the herd’s
ability to just maintain size.
Previous heifer management
prompted heifers to calve at 28
months. These heifers produced
19843# milk in 305 days and
had 305 mature equivalent (ME)
of 24216#. The new heifers are
now calving for the first time at
24 months and produce 17569#
milk with a 305 ME of 23840#.
This results in 2274# less milk
per animal with an estimated
$273 value ($12.00/cwt). The
greater dollars generated by the
older heifers in this case makes
up for the increased cost of rear
ing them. We cannot, however,
justify some of the other poten
tial losses. For this reason, we
discussed what might be going
wrong with the new heifer man
agement program.
Sometimes the most signifi
cant change in management is
no change at all. The theory here
is that past heifer management
bred heifers at 19 months of age
and these heifers were housed
with dry cows shortly after they
were confirmed pregnant.
Therefore, these heifers did not
go on the maintenance dry cow
diet until past 20 months of age.
Currently heifers are treated
the same way, but now this diet
change occurs at 16 months. Did
we tell our heifers to slow down
their growth? Without heifer
measurements before the man
agement change, we can only
rely on instinct and maybe some
current measurements against
breed averages. We still are calv
ing at the younger age, but the
heifers are allowed to stay in
their age group until 20 months
of age (pregnant 5 months). The
plan is to do similar measure
ments, with milk starts and
peaks as before, to have some
idea if our plan is working, at
the earliest possible time.
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Average Farm Feed
Costs for Handy
Reference
To help farmers across the state to
have handy reference of commodity
input costs in their feeding operations
for DHIA record sheets or to develop
livestock feed cost data, here’s last
week’s average costs of various ingred
ients as compiled from regional reports
across the state of Pennsylvania.
Remember, these are averages, so you
will need to adjust your figures up or
down according to your location and the
quality of your crop.
Corn, No.2y 2.50 bu., 4.47 cwt.
Wheat, N 0.2 2.32 bu., 3.87 cwt.
Barley, N 0.3 —1.77 bu., 3.79 cwt.
Oats, N 0.2 —1.55 bu., 4.84 cwt.
Soybeans, No.l —4.94 bu., 8.25 cwt.
Ear Corn 77.28 ton, 3.86 cwt.
Alfalfa Hay —128.75 ton, 6.44 cwt
Mixed Hay —125.00 ton, 6.25 cwt.
Timothy Hay —125.00 ton, 6.25 cwt.
V/
BREAKING MILK RECORDS!
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