A study of dairy heifer rearing practices from birth to weaning and their associated costs on UK dairy farms
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Date
2015-04-10
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
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Publisher
Scientific Research Publishing
Rights
Copyright © 201
5 by authors
and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY)
Abstract
There are many inputs into the dairy replacement herd which impact not only on the cost of rearing
heifers from birth to first calving, but also on their future longevity and production potential.
This study determined the current cost of rearing dairy heifers in the UK through the calculation
and analysis of individual costs on a subset of 102 UK dairy farms. Each farm was visited and an
extensive heifer rearing questionnaire was completed. Current heifer rearing practices were recorded
to provide insight into critical management decisions. A cost analysis workbook was developed
to calculate the costs of inputs in the pre-weaning period for labour, calving, feed, housing,
health treatments and vaccinations, waste storage, machinery and equipment, and utilities. The
average age at weaning was 62 d. The mean cost of rearing from birth to weaning was £195.19 per
heifer with a mean daily cost of £3.14 (excluding the opportunity cost of the calf). This ranged from
£1.68 to £6.11 among farms, reflecting major differences in management strategies and efficiency.
The highest contribution to total costs came from feed (colostrum, milk, starter and forage) at 48.5%
with milk feeding making up the greatest proportion of this at 37.3%. The next major expenses
were bedding and labour, contributing 12.3% and 11.2% respectively. Unsurprisingly, delaying
age at weaning increased total cost by £3.53 per day. Total costs were on average 45% higher on
organic farms than conventional due to higher feed costs and later weaning. Calving pattern also
had a strong association with the total cost being lowest with spring calving, intermediate with
autumn calving and highest in multi block and all year round calving herds.
Description
Keywords
Weaning, Heifer, Cost analysis
Citation
Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 2015, 5 (2), pp. 185 - 197 (12)