CAFRE Dairy Open Days

Heifer rearing is a significant investment and can account for up to 20% of a dairy systems production costs. A key factor to maximising production efficiency within heifer rearing systems is targeting 24 month calving.

Jim Fulton assistant farm manager, Mary-Jane Robinson Thompsons and Alastair Boyle assessing heifer growth performance.

Data from NI milk recorded herds shows that heifers calving at 24 months have the highest lifetime yield compared to heifers calving at any other age. Also, for every one month delay in calving beyond 24 months on average a loss of 570 litres of lifetime milk is incurred per month.

Milk recording data shows that heifers in NI are calving on average at 27 months, which represents an additional rearing cost of approximately £258 compared to calving at 24 months. By improving heifer rearing practices this will also have a positive effect on the carbon footprint of your farm.

The replacement heifer rearing stop during the CAFRE open days will examine the above aspects in relation to Greenmount heifer rearing and how 24 month calving is being achieved, along with results from genomic analysis to identify heifers with the best genetics.

Farmers will also have an opportunity to enter an ‘estimate the weight competition’ of maiden heifers, with the winner receiving 1.0 tonnes of heifer rearing nuts (kindly sponsored by John Thompson and Sons). Download the Open Day App to enter the competition!

Dairy Open Days

Performance of the herd against key performance indicators (KPIs) will be discussed at the CAFRE Dairy Open Days on 24 and 25 January 2018. Tours will start from 10.30am every 20 minutes each day and the tours will last for two hours. The last tour will start at 1.30pm. A light lunch will be available after the tour.

There will be six stops on the tour of the Greenmount Dairy Farm which will focus on:

1. Benchmarking Dairy Herd Performance
2. Replacement Heifer rearing
3. Slurry utilisation and forage production
4. Dry cow management
5. Cow and calf management at calving
6. Feed efficiency and current herd diets

Further details are available through the Dairy Open Day App.

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