A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6, 2002
Penn State Cooperative Extension
Capitol Region Dairy Team
REPLACEMENT HEIFERS
NEEDS AND
AVAILABILITY,
COSTS AND RETURNS
Glenn A. Shirk
Extension Dairy
Agent, Lancaster
Heifers are a major cost of pro
ducing milk. They also are our
herds of the future. Because of
this, many progressive producers
like to get their heifers to calving
weight by about 23 months of
age. This can reduce the cost of
getting them to calving age, plus
it also provides a quicker return
on their heifer investment.
Many producers also like to
upgrade their herds with geneti
cally superior heifers, and they
like to have a few extra heifers to
merchandise for top dollar.
The number of replacements
needed and their costs are affect
ed by a number of factors, such
as deaths, cattle culled, cattle
sold for dairy purposes, age at
first calving, changes in herd size,
etc.
The number of replacements
needed nearly doubles as you
move from a 23-month calving
interval and a 25 percent cull rate
to a 27-month calving interval
and a 40 percent cull rate. For a
100-cow herd, the size of the re
placement herd needed can vary
from 56 to 106, as shown in Table
1. That also means you will need
almost twice as much feed, twice
as much labor, and twice as
much housing, all of which in
creases the cost of producing
milk.
The more heifers you need for
replacements the fewer you have
left to merchandise; that can be a
tremendous loss of income, espe
cially at today’s heifer prices.
With a 14-month calving interval
and a 30 percent cull rate, that
could be as much as $lO,OOO to
$ll,OOO per year in a 100-cow
herd that has 7 extra heifers for
sale (see Tables 2 and 3).
If the cull rate, in this situa
tion, climbs to 40 percent, it may
be impossible to maintain herd
size without purchasing some re
placements. Instead of selling
heifers for a “nice chunk of
change,” you now find yourself in
a situation where you have to
“cough up some dough” to buy a
few replacements, or hang on to
more of your problem cows and
“poor do-ers.”
Some key questions are, what
are your replacements costing
you per CWT of milk shipped?
Are you cashing in on the oppor
tunity to merchandise some of
your heifers and cows at dairy
value rather than cull value?
Table 4 compares some costs
and returns. It shows that heifer
costs increase about $l3O per
month when calving age is de
layed. They can also vary as
much as $1 to $2 per CWT of
milk shipped. The cost doubles as
you move from a 23-month calv
ing age and 25 percent cull rate
to a 27-month calving age and 40
percent cull rate.
As you might expect, a
4,000-pound difference in milk
production per cow can also af
fect the cost of producing milk by
$0.25 to $0.50 or more per CWT.
Calving at 28 months of age rath
er than 24 could mean a 4-month
delay on about $l,OOO of income
per heifer; if you calve 30 heifers
per year, that’s a 4-month wait
before you have access to about
$30,000 of milk income.
You can calculate these results
for your own herd on a spread
sheet that can be downloaded
from the Capitol Region Dairy
Team Website at http://
capitaldairy.cas.psu.edu/.
Table 1 Size Heifer Herd Needed to Sui
No of
Years
Milked
Cow
Removal
Rate
0 20
0 25
0 30
0 40
0 50
iss and St
'able 2. Ex<
lortage of Heifers Annually vs. Needs per 100 Cows
Heifers
Needed
per Yr
Cow
Removal
Rate
0 20
0 25
0 30
0 40
0 50
ter Sales and Purchases
Table 3 Heifr
Heifers
Needed
Cow
Removal
per Yr
Rate
0 20
0 25
0 30
0 40
0 50
'able 4 Heifer Costs
Calving age
Heifer cost at calving
x cow cull rate
Heifer cost / cow / yr
Heifer cost / cwt milk
produced
19,0001 b per cow
21,0001 b per cow
23,000 lb per cow
Milk income delapdp
19,000 lb. per cow
21,000 lb per cow
23,000 lb pecow
PHILADELPHIA The Mid-
Atlantic Dairy Association board
of directors recently elected offi
cers and welcomed two new
members to the board.
R. Steven Graybeal, Peach
Bottom, was elected chairman of
the 14-member board. Graybeal,
who has been farming for 33
years, said he strongly believes in
dairy promotion and its effective
ness in increasing milk sales.
Since 1984, when the national
dairy promotion program went
into effect, per capita consump
tion of all dairy products has in
creased by 11 percent. Total milk
sales have increased by 33 per
cent.
“The dairy checkoff program
is focused on increasing dairy
product demand as well as en
hancing the image of dairy prod
ucts and the dairy industry,”
Graybeal said. “Our responsibil
ity, as dairy promotion board
members, is to assure that this
program is managed effectively
and efficiently.”
Also elected as Mid-Atlantic
Dairy Association officers were
David Noss, Port Royal, vice
irt 100 Cows
ie at First Calvmi
21 Mo 23 Mo
41 45
51 56 61 66 71
62 68 74
82 90 98 106 114
103 113 123 132 142
Calving Interval
12 Mo 13 Mo 14 Mo 15 Mo . 16 Mo
22 19
17 14 12 10 8
13 10 7
4 1
ir 100 Cows (negatives are
Calving Interval
12 Mo 13 Mo
32,560 28,048 24,181 20,830 17,898
26,038 21,526 17,659 14,308 11,375
19,515 15,003 11,136 7,785 4,853
-1909
6,470 1,958
-14,954
-11,087
■6,575
21 Mo 23 Mo 25 Mo 27 Mo 29 Mo
1,045 1,172 1,300 1,428 1,555
0 20 0 25 0 30 0 40 0 50
209 293 390 571 778
1 10 1.54 2 05 3 01 4 09
0 99 1 40 1 86 2 72 3 70
0 91 1.27 1 70 2.48 3.38
>r heifer wheiHieiferscalveafter 22 months of age.
0 247
0 273 820 1,366 1,913
0 299
Foraging Around, the
newsletter of the
Pennsylvania Forage and'— *
Grassland Council is scheduled
April 20. The section includes
additional coverage of the Council's
recent annual conference in
Grantville. Also included are
features with a focus on making
hay for specialty markets.
Mid-Atlantic Dairy
Association Elects Officers
27 Mo 29 Mo
25 Mo
79 85
-1 -4
lurchases)
14 Mo
15 Mo 16 Mo
-8,193
-5,260
-21,238
-18,305
1,236 1,730
742
. 898 1,496 2,095
Elected as officers of the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Associa
tion board of directors are, from left, Scott Kreider, sec
retary; R. Steven Graybeal, chairman; David Noss, vice
chairman; and Jerrel Heatwole, treasurer.
chairman; Scott Kreider, Quarry
ville, secretary; and Jerrel Heat
wole, Greenwood, Del., treasurer.
Jeff Moore, Centreville, Md., and
Paul Broering, Henry, Ohio, were
named as new board members.
The Mid-Atlantic Dairy Asso-
Turner Dairy Commits To
New Food Science Building
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Turner Dairy Farms, Inc.,
has committed $50,000 to name a
laboratory in memory of the late
James G. Turner in the new Food
Science Building, to be built on
Penn State’s University Park
campus.
The James G. Turner Dairy
Products Microbiology and Char
acterization Laboratory will be
part of the 98,000-square-foot
Food Science Building, which is
slated to be completed by spring
2005 at an estimated cost of $22
million.
“Dairy products are a critical
component of the common
wealth’s food industry, and this
laboratory will help us continue
to provide cutting-edge research
to support dairy-related business-
2002 PENNSYLVANIA HOLSTEIN ASSOCIATION
7 00 P M WESTERN PA SPRING SPECTACULAR SALE
MERCER COUNTY 4-H PARK, MERCER, PA
APRIL 12
700 P M SOUTHWEST SENSATION SALE
FAYETTE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, UNIONTOWN, PA
APRIL 19
11 00 A M PA HOLSTEIN HEIFER SALE
PA HOLSTEIN FARM, MIDDLETOWN, PA
APRIL 26
NATIONAL HOLSTEIN CONVENTION
TRUMP TAJ MAHAL, ATLANTIC CITY, NJ
JUNE 24-27
1000 AM SOUTHWEST CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
FAYETTE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, UNIONTOWN, PA
JULY 27
10 00 A M NORTHERN TIER CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
FAIRGROUNDS, MESHOPPEN. PA
AUGUST 1
9 30 A M NORTHWEST CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
STONEBORO FAIRGROUNDS, STONEBORO, PA
AUGUST 3
9 30 A M SOUTH-CENTRAL CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
FAIRGROUNDS. SHIPPENSBURG. PA
AUGUST 10
11 30 A M WARREN COUNTY HOLSTEIN SALE
FAIRGROUNDS, PITTSFIELD, PA
AUGUST 17
6 00 P M CENTRAL CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
HUNTINGDON COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, HUNTINGDON, PA
AUGUST 17
10 00A M NORTHEAST CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
ALPION PARK, TROY, PA
AUGUST 20
10 00 A M SOUTHEAST CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
AUGUST 21
11 00 A M PA HOLSTEIN HEIFER SALE
PA HOLSTEIN FARM. MIDDLETOWN, PA
AUGUST 30
9 00A M PA HOLSTEIN FALL CHAMPIONSHIP SHOW
FARM SHOW BUILDING, HARRISBURG, PA
SEPTEMBER 24
7 OOP M EASTERN ELITE HOLSTEIN SALE
FARM SHOW BUILDING. HARRISBURG. PA
SEPTEMBER 23
8 00A M EASTERN NATIONAL HOLSTEIN SHOW
FARM SHOW BUILDING, HARISBURG, PA
SEPTEMBER 26
11 00A M NITTANY LION FALL CLASSIC SALE
AG ARENA. STATE COLLEGE, PA
NOVEMBER 16
datum is a regional promotion
organization funded by dairy
fanners to increase dairy product
demand in the Mid-Atlantic re
gion through advertising, com
munications, and nutrition edu
cation programs.
es,” said John D. Floras, head of
Penn State’s food science depart
ment. “We are deeply grateful to
the Turner family ror sharing our
vision, and for facilitating our ft*;
ture efforts in this area.”
Research to be conducted at
the laboratory will examine the
effects of processing variables on
ice cream structure and the ef
fects of preprocessing treatments
on the survival of beneficial bac
teria in dairy foods, among other
studies.
The lab also will support activ
ities such as short courses, work
shops and technical assistance for
Pennsylvania food processing
companies.
The Turner family owns and
operates Turner Dairy Farms in
suburban Pittsburgh.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS