Symposium review: Strategies to improve the efficiency and profitability of heifer raising

Abstract

Regional Research Project NC-2042 has a main objective to study calf and heifer nutrition. Within this objective, feeding the postweaned heifer is considered a major priority to improve the profitability and sustainability of US dairy farms. Through optimizing nutrient utilization by precision feeding, using alternative feeds, high-fiber diets, and feed additives, this research group has worked to enhance dairy heifer nutrition. Research has focused on precision feeding heifers and incorporating high-and low-fiber diets into this system of feeding. This is accomplished by meeting the nutrient needs of the heifer for a desired rate of growth while enhancing total-tract nutrient digestibility, reducing waste and improving profitability. High-fiber forages have been studied as a means of controlling ad libitum dry matter intakes and thus weight gain in heifers. These results provide producers with a means of feeding heifers while reducing costs. Similarly, utilizing alternative feedstuffs in heifer diets has also been a major research area for this group including comprehensive research on distillers co-products, and new protein sources such as camelina and carinata meals. Results indicated that these products can be satisfactorily incorporated into heifer diets. Studying feed additives has also been a function of the research group. Research with Ascophyllum nodosum and cinnamaldehyde indicated that calves find these additives unpalatable and that supplementing cin-namaldehyde to postweaned heifers showed no benefit. However, sodium butyrate and yeast supplementation proved to be beneficial in the growth and feed efficiency of heifers. Research from this group has an effect on heifer feeding, resulting in new information that can aid in the sustainability of dairy farms. This review will focus on the area of postweaned heifer nutrition.

ADSA Foundation Scholar Award: New frontiers in calf and heifer nutrition—From conception to puberty

“…Certainly, heifer rearing targets and requirements are not well understood during the prepubertal and postpubertal phases and may be influenced by nutrition earlier in life. Several recent reviews (Heinrichs et al, 2017;Van Amburgh et al, 2019;Erickson et al, 2020) have compiled management strategies proposed to optimize heifer calf nutrition from prepuberty to first calving to reduce rearing costs, optimize age at first calving, and improve milk production. Although the developmental plasticity at this stage of life is lowest (Figure 1), some examples have illustrated how altering nutrition programs can affect future productivity.…”

“…The most important variable that can be manipulated in replacement heifers during the prepubertal-to-pregnancy stage is growth rate. Growth rate can influence breeding age, age at first calving, lifetime productivity, and feed costs (Heinrichs et al, 2017;Van Amburgh et al, 2019;Erickson et al, 2020) and will be the main focus of this section. Several studies have investigated the effect of prepubertal ADG on milk production.…”

“…The overall goal of rearing calves and replacement heifers is to raise healthy and nutritionally efficient animals in a humane and cost-effective manner. Most rearing strategies aim to reduce the age at first calving to lessen nonproductive days, while ensuring that heifers achieve sufficient frame size and organ development without compromising milk production Van Amburgh et al, 2019;Erickson et al, 2020). Over the past 2 decades, knowledge of developmental and nutritional programming of young livestock animals has advanced (Soberon et al, 2012;Bartol et al, 2013;Gelsinger et al, 2016).…”

“…Solid feed plays an important role in nutritional programming, as improved solid feed intake contributes to increased preweaning ADG, which positively influences first-lactation milk production (Soberon et al, 2012;Gelsinger et al, 2016). Moreover, research conducted during the prepubertal-to-first-calving period has focused on nutritional management that ensures adequate growth and development (Heinrichs et al, 2017;Van Amburgh et al, 2019;Erickson et al, 2020). There is currently a lack of research pertaining to nutritional management from the postpubertal stage to first calving and its effect on efficiency and productivity during lactation.…”

Quality Control of Colostrum and Protein Calf Milk Replacers

“…Figure 1 shows that the basic principles of processing multicomponent products remain the same, while specific technological methods are constantly being improved. Recent studies in the field of animal and plant biotransformation revealed some new plant raw materials and more effective means that facilitate and control emulsification of vegetable fats and protein hydrolysis [4,5,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”