Contents 1 Excel Spreadsheet Series 2 Introduction 3 Group Growth Monitor 3.1 Instructions 4 Group ADG Monitor 4.1 Instructions 5 Individual Growth Monitor 5.1 Instructions 6 Repeated 6.1 Instructions 7 Reading and Interpreting Results 8 Summary 9 Authors

Excel Spreadsheet Series

The spreadsheet series is located here.

Introduction

The success of a heifer-rearing program can be evaluated by monitoring the height and weight of calves and …

Heifer Fundamentals is a chapter from the book Raising Dairy Replacements.

The primary focus of rearing heifers is to grow and develop heifers as quickly
and cost effectively as possible without negatively influencing animal health
and lifetime productivity. When developing heifer management plans, it is
important to understand key management concepts such as heifer growth,
mammary development, puberty, calving age, and body weight at calving.

Please check this link first if you are interested in organic or specialty dairy …

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Chore Chart for a Labor Management System 2.1 Chore 2.2 Daily, weekly or monthly 2.3 Personnel 2.4 Time 2.5 Labor cost 2.6 Responsibility factor (RF) 2.7 Outcome 2.8 Consequence 3 Summary of Chore Charts 3.1 Calves from birth to weaning 3.2 Heifers from weaning age to 6 months 3.3 Heifers from 6 months of age to breeding 3.4 Heifers from breeding age to prefreshening 3.5 Making a custom chore chart 3.6 Chore Charts 4 Authors

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Raising dairy heifers to an adequate size and with an age at first calving between 22 and 24 months can optimize profitable milk production. This achievable goal requires proper nutrition and feeding management so heifers are large enough to breed at 13 to 15 months old. Both contract heifer growers and dairy producers who raise their own replacements should follow these breeding and calving age guidelines.

On many dairy farms, heifer management is not the most critical part of the …