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Not all heifers are equal

A dairy consultant says the increasing replacement heifer population has caused some farmers to cull animals before its necessary.

Dr. Michael Overton with Elanco Animal Health tells Brownfield farmers need to evaluate the expected performance of all replacement heifers and current their milking cows, “Does this heifer coming in represent better current and future value as compared to this existing cow?”

Unfortunately, he says investment costs are not able to be recouped if farmers wait too long to make that decision. Overton recommends culling about seven percent of the herd’s bottom genetic potential when animals are 70 to 75 days old, “The surviving heifers now, because they’ve been selected, actually ended up producing quite a bit more milk in first lactation.”

He says by reducing the replacement heifer population, farmers are elevating the quality of the herd and gaining more than $170 per animal over its lifetime.

Brownfield spoke with Overton during the recent Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference about dairy replacement heifer costs.