Description

Replacement heifer rearing accounts a substantial dairy farm expense, second only to feed and forage. This is compounded by mounting significant evidence demonstrating the impact of early life performance on adult cow health and longevity. A wealth of new research has been published in the last five years alone on all aspects of youngstock rearing, with increasing focus on driving profitability and sustainability particularly during the post-weaned period.

This is often an area where large amounts of data can be collected on farm, although frequently these data sources are not well utilised by the farm for decision management. In this webinar, we will review the practical use of evidence-based performance indicators from the weaning period to first lactation, with a focus on rearing efficiency and heifer effectiveness. Concepts such as monitoring weaning protocol and success, assessing post-weaned weight and condition gain targets and feed conversion efficiency and evaluating disease impact and prevention will be covered, alongside assessing herd longevity metrics such as rearing efficiency and heifer effectiveness, first lactation survival and performance.

Learning Objectives

• Feel confident with an approach to communicating with clients on the topic of postweaning heifer performance
• Be comfortable with which data sources are available on farm for post-weaning heifer performance monitoring and how to both assess the quality of these and advise a farmer on collecting these data appropriately
• Undertake an investigation into weaning success and growth checks surrounding weaning
• Be aware of literature targets for daily liveweight gains and be able to formulate farm specific targets based on individual farm management
• Be able to use production and fertility performance indicators to benchmark heifer first lactation performance
• Be able to apply the examples outlined in this webinar to own farms and create an individual narrative