After the spring calves are weaned, they may be sold or moved into drylot for backgrounding; the remaining brood cows are checked for pregnancy and soundness. Any animal that is deemed unprofitable should be culled before the new year.

Not too long ago, their salvage value was only worth a few hundred dollars, but in today’s record-high market, even a half-blind, smooth-mouth and open cow is worth significant dollars. Consequently, people should make up a cull list to take advantage of this revenue stream, while also improving the integrity of their cow herd.

All mature cows, first-calf heifers or replacement females that cannot get pregnant or are open should top everyone’s cull list. Infertile cows simply cannot produce a money-making calf for next year. That is the strict opinion of my friend, who operates a 400-head Angus-Simmental cow herd.

I asked him if there were any exceptions to his number one rule of culling open cows. He replied that even if she were the best cow in the herd and was guaranteed to re-breed the next season, she is clearly a depreciated item:

• She did not give birth to a calf that generates his main income,
• She will then incur at least a $3 per day bill for overwinter feed and housing costs (200 days) or $600 of liability, and
• At least she is worth a few thousand dollars in today’s cull market.

The funny thing is that it might not be her fault in the first place. His story continues: much of his cow herd breeding season falls during the hottest days of summer and many cows (as well as breeding bulls) having suffered from heat-stress-related infertility.

My friend says it’s unfortunate, but these cows must be culled for cited economics — not to mention that he has no time, room or interest in creating a pregnant fall-calving herd.

Another producer I know operates a 250-head cow-calf operation, several hundreds of kilometres to the east of my first friend. He has similar views on culling infertile cows, but is ‘open’ (pun intended) to giving a handful of non-pregnant mature cows a second chance. He writes their ear tag number under a ‘maybe’ column on his cull list.

These ‘maybe’ candidates are healthy mature cows that have proven to be good nursing mothers in the past year that have turned out good 600-pound weaned calves by autumn. Given that she might eat $600 worth of overwinter feed until the next breeding season, this producer is willing to take a chance to successfully breed her next year to yield a feeder calf, which is worth nearly $4,000 ($650 per hundredweight) in today’s market.

These two friends sell their cull cows shortly before the end of the year. However, I met a third person who runs a 300-head Hereford crossbred operation and takes a slightly different approach.

He culls his cow herd twice a year. The first culls consist of about 30 open cows after the calves are weaned, and the second group is 15–20 individuals, put together within weeks after the calving season ends — hard calvers and cows that are breeding season stragglers. All cull cows are put in their own pen during an 80-day feeding program to gain 250 lb. and then sold at cull-cow prices.

All three beef producers above cull cows due to infertility; however, there are secondary reasons why brood cows might be sold. Some of these reasons are:

• Old age. As brood cows reach 10 years, their bodies break down, worn-down teeth (smooth-mouth), teats and udders collapse, uterine infections and general lameness are inevitable. They are more susceptible to disease.
• Poor nursing cows. Cows with poor milk production (which translates into poor growing calves) should be culled. One obvious goal of most commercial herds is to maximize total saleable weaned weight of their annual calf crop.
• Rough calvers. Some cows seem to have several hard-calving seasons — a calf has to be pulled or the cow has a prolapsed vagina, retained placenta, milk-fever or serious uterine infections.
• Poor cow health. Some cows are more susceptible to health challenges compared to other cows. Cows with a contagious disease or identified as disease carriers should be removed. Cows with chronic health problems might be culled.

Regardless on the reasons that any cow is culled from its herd, I believe there is at least a 10-15 per cent cull rate on most cow-calf operations.

All of these culls should be replaced by a young, healthy, good milking and promising mother — namely, a bred first-calf replacement female. Soon, she should give birth to a strong, good-growing spring calf, which is sold the following fall as a heavyweight money-maker.

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Better genetics and nutrition are two good reasons. Yet, these brand-new mothers still require special attention after calving, despite some producers treating them like seasoned mature cows.

I often recommend that a good walk be taken among the main cow herd or segregated groups of first-calved heifers (now young cows). Conduct a proper body condition score (BCS) of each young animal, which determines their nutritional status. From there, select the particular feeding program on which you want to take them, once the heifers are on pasture in order to get rebred with their second calf.

A good BCS of each young cow on the day of calving is a good starting point that will dictate the success of such upcoming reproductive performance. That’s because an optimum BCS of 5 to 6 on a scale of 0 to 9 is an indication of her current nutritional status, which is the single most important factor that controls postpartum interval, milk production, estrus strength, services per conception and, ultimately, successful rebreeding.

In light of research-proven facts, I recently spent a couple of hours with a herd manager of a 350-head cow-calf operation. We completed a body assessment of about 60 calved-out replacement heifers. The premise was:

• Starting calving date was March 1, 2025.
• First-calf replacement heifers were bred three weeks ahead of the main cowherd – allowing 20–30 days of extra post-partum interval.
• All heifers were fed an overwintered diet of 15 kg barley silage, two kg grass hay, 0.5 kg canola meal and four oz. of a well-balanced fortified mineral-vitamin premix. All barley grain was removed a couple of weeks ago.
• Replacement heifers were segregated from the main herd and housed along with cull cows due to a lack of facilities.
• Creep feeders were placed in the pen and filled with a 16 per cent texturized oat-corn ration.
• Bulls are released on pasture during mid-May for a 60-day breeding season.

Most of these calved replacement heifers are well-framed animals that scored the desired 5 to 6, which I believe was directly responsible for only one or two assisted births from the present calvings.

These young mothers were also nursing well with two- to three-week-old calves that had great vitality. Only two replacement heifers were poor doers (thin body condition, due to other factors) and were soon to be culled.

Since there was a good amount of rainfall in the fall, in combination with early spring snows, the manager expects most pastures to be in good shape by the time the cow herd is released. The plan is that his first-parity cows (nursing a new calf) will be moved onto green pastures broken up only a couple of years ago. The high quality of these tamed pastures is expected to match their high energy and protein requirements for lactation, support of good body growth and retaining body condition in order to trigger at least one active estrus before the breeding season.

The manager also routinely feeds a loose mineral on pasture to the main cowherd as well as to all first-calved beef heifers. It has been his experience that a well-formulated mineral should be fed at three to four ounces per day in order to build up the mineral/vitamin status of every cow, which promotes active rebreeding and conception.

His personal choice is a “breeder-type” mineral with 18 per cent calcium and nine per cent phosphorus plus fortified levels of “chelated” copper, zinc, manganese and selenium as well as higher levels of vitamins A, D and E. He has never had much of a problem with grass tetany over the years, so he limits the magnesium to about three per cent, which meets those respective requirements.

Given that good pasture nutrition is in place, his only real concern is a bout of foot rot that hits the same young cow group (with nursing calves). When it happens, about every other year, it starts with one or two cows and spreads to about a third of the other grazers. Luckily, the most visible cases are caught in the early stages and treated with antibiotics.

Beyond that concern, it’s a matter of providing good nutrition and management to a young set of mothers that really started at the beginning of winter and carried on to the calving season. It means carrying on this special attention from calving and right through the breeding season on pasture.

As a result of all these efforts I look forward to successful confirmation of a second pregnancy, 30 days hence.

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Just like any team through junior high, high school, college or the pros, there are some fundamentals required to make a good team. First, the new recruits need a bit of coaching on where to go, what to do, what to graze, et cetera. This is true not only for new entrants from within the herd, but also purchased cows. Often cows that come into a herd aren’t aware of the systems in place, or even what plants are good grazing.

There are a few problems a cow herd team can have that really cause damage, and surprisingly they are quite similar to those in a human team.

Failing to fit

Some cows may come into a system or a team and just be unable to fit in with what is going on. That doesn’t mean they are not good players, but it may mean their talents are better suited for a different playing style. This could be cows that are in a low-input, grazing system trying to keep up with the power of cows in a more high-octane system — or it could be the reverse. Sometimes players just don’t fit the overall scheme of things. We don’t want to sign a goalie when we are really looking for a power forward.

Not a team player

This could be something as simple as being aggressive toward coaches and ownership, or more complex, such as choosing to leave the playing field at inopportune times (fence-crawling). It sometimes takes a bit of time for a cow to adapt to her new teammates and understand the pecking order — but some things are relatively inexcusable. It partly relates to non-performance, but cows that require extra attention or care relative to their teammates are a drag on the entire roster. It’s often a fine line between a cow learning the game versus a cow being a literal on- and off-field distraction.

Non-performance

This may also seem basic and, as previously mentioned, it may take a while for new recruits to really learn the game. For example, we don’t necessarily expect the calves from first-calf heifers to weigh the same at weaning as calves from mature cows. That said, various teams have different expectations and teammates need to meet these expectations at the risk of shortened careers and being traded.

Sometimes we can end up with a recruit that creates a lot of team drama or is not a good fit. It is often better to trade your way out of this team member and search for a better fit. That also goes for injury-prone players. Every time we add new herd members we need to empower their success, but we also need to hold them accountable and not adjust the rest of the team just to make a few new players happy.

Salary cap

Most operations work on a salary cap. There is only so much money that can go into players and at the end of the day it is nice to have a bit left for the coach and ownership. While we may have our favourite players (remember old No. 27?) it’s important that everyone pulls their weight toward the end goal.

I think it’s also fair to state every team needs a coach whose playing style matches the environment and the players. That is the role of the farm or ranch manager. The players need to clearly understand the expectations of the system and ownership needs to work to ensure the right players are in place. It’s possible to adapt the system to the cows — but be aware of the salary cap and if you want to pay for a team of superstars or grinders.

There are a lot of teams of cows with different playing styles that can be extremely successful. The trick is making sure that the style matches management resources and coaching. Additionally, it’s important to know the system you are working in and ensure players are accountable to whatever standard that requires.

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That’s according to Jordan Thomas, an assistant professor with the University of Missouri’s division of animal sciences. He challenged Beef Day attendees at Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week to approach heifer replacement as though they were hiring new employees to balance workforce retirements.

“What would it take to hire a replacement heifer into a commercial cow-calf operation?” he asks. Current costs are between US$390-$450 per calf, according to the fall and spring calving rates in the U.S., falling behind feed as the highest production expense.

Unlike most selection processes, genetic merit and visual phenotype are the final boxes Thomas checks. Instead, a calf must meet the minimum requirements of being structurally sound, in good health, with an easy disposition, and being an early conceiver with a low likelihood of calving difficulty.

READ MORE: First-calf heifers need to be prepared for rebreeding

“There’s some opportunity at birth to think about replacement heifer selection. I’m going to try to convince you today that, just like she can’t be BVD PI (bovine viral diarrhea, persistently infected), she can’t be a late-conceiving heifer.”

Studies show late-conceiving heifers exit the herd faster, increasing annual replacement costs, Thomas says. Early-conceiving animals generally produce higher weaning weights in subsequent years and reduce yearly cow replacement costs.

Seventy per cent of heifers born in the first 21 days of calving season will cycle before their first breeding session, with 81 per cent calving within the first 21 days in their first calving season.

In contrast, cycling before their first breeding season drops to 58 per cent for calves born in the second 21 days of calving season, with only 69 per cent of those calving early. For those born in the third 21-day calving season, early breeding season cycling drops to 39 per cent and early calving to 65 per cent.

“Some of it’s because (early-born heifers) are bigger and have more weight; they’re better developed. Because puberty is associated with age, the earlier-born heifer tends to conceive a little bit earlier and stay in the herd a little bit longer,” Thomas explains. “If you’re really limited on the number of heifers you can develop, it’s not a bad idea to emphasize keeping back the earliest-born heifers.”

A 2018 study on target weights for heifers, traditionally set at 65 per cent of mature weight, says U.S. cow size had increased 32 per cent since 1978 and that forage-based heifers bred at 55 per cent became profitable at three to four years old.

While this could lower conception rates by two per cent, it’s negligible considering feed savings and calf revenue — a development cost-reduction opportunity of US$574-$644 per heifer, compared to drylot animals raised to 65 per cent target weight.

Reproductive track scoring (RTS) performed 30 to 60 days before breeding could narrow heifer selection through pelvic measurement and puberty assessment of one, indicating an infantile pre-pubertal tract, to five for a cycling heifer.

The Show-Me-Select heifer replacement database of 44,500 heifers indicates high pregnancy rates for animals with four or five scores, improving fixed-time artificial insemination success and weaning weight.

Cow calipers

“A great component of that pre-breeding exam would be pelvic measurement,” Thomas says. “This is a tool to potentially minimize the incidence of dystocia.”

A Rice Pelvimeter measures the pelvis’s vertical and horizontal dimensions for a total pelvic area as a calving ease indicator in combination with calving-ease bull breeding, as both impact dystocia potential.

For example, a height of 13.5 cm by a width of 11.5 cm is a pelvic measurement of 155.25 square centimetres, slightly exceeding the 150 cm2 Thomas suggests as the minimum heifers should meet to remain in the herd.

Yearling pelvic growth is approximately eight to 10 cm2 per month or 0.25 to 0.3 cm2 a day, so those failing the initial exam can be remeasured during pregnancy diagnosis for accuracy, especially for later-born heifers.

A heifer with a super-large pelvis can experience dystocia with a 95-lb. calf and no issue with a 55-lb. calf, whereas a heifer with a small pelvis would.

“If you’re going to solve the dystocia problem in heifers, you can’t just do one thing,” he says. “It’s not going to manage the problem entirely to just use calving ease bulls. We have to do some management of the females.”

Screening out females with an unacceptably small pelvis area is an effective tool for early replacement heifer elimination.

Thomas says there are many methods of integrating genetics and phenotypes for fertility and productivity into replacement animal selection.

Each producer has a system for who stays in the herd. Some put bulls in 21 days earlier to see which heifers conceive — which works from a business perspective, rather than a genetic selection one. Others use a veterinarian to assess which conceived early and sell those that don’t, and others develop almost every heifer.

“Everybody’s operation is a little bit different, right? You might have a comparative advantage of grass access and low-cost feed resource access, right?” Thomas says. “Some people’s comparative advantage is they’ve got a dry lot and cheap feed resources, and the economics may incline you to heavier development endpoints in that model.”

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While traditionally the realm of the seedstock industry, commercial DNA testing and changes in the way we manage cattle have led to some big changes in how we think about genetic selection. DNA testing, in broad terms, means using a DNA sample from an animal and performing laboratory testing on that sample to identify parts of the genome that animal contains.

A brief outline of the process: DNA testing starts by collecting a tissue sample or hair follicles from an animal. This sample is then sent to a laboratory where the DNA is extracted and “read.”

New tests will typically read 50,000 to 100,000 pieces of an animal’s DNA. While we have the capability to read millions or even billions of DNA pieces, with 50,000 to 100,000 we can do a really good job of identifying important genetic characteristics of the animal at an affordable price point. Some of the DNA pieces we read are “associated” with specific traits. For example, if a calf carries two copies of the polled gene, specific pieces of DNA will “light up.”

For another example: we may know specific pieces of DNA that are associated with longevity. By looking directly to see if these variants of DNA are present, we can assess the genetic potential of the animal being tested for longevity.

DNA testing can range from sire verification at a roughly $20 price point, specific characteristic testing such as horned/polled or colour at additional cost, or broader trait evaluation at $40 and up. This broader spectrum can include measures of longevity, growth, hybrid vigour, feed efficiency or other traits. Additionally, these slightly higher cost tests can also be used in genetic evaluations (calculation of EPD).

There are various ways we can use this information and incorporate it into our commercial operations.

1 – Use DNA-tested sires

One of the easiest ways for a commercial producer to benefit from DNA testing is to purchase sires that have been DNA-tested prior to sale. This has several benefits. First, the pedigree on the bull being purchased is confirmed with DNA testing, meaning you are getting the DNA you expect when you purchase a sire.

Secondly, high-density DNA testing can be used in genetic evaluation to increase the accuracy of the EPD on the sire you are buying. The inclusion of high-density DNA in a genetic evaluation is roughly equivalent to the knowledge gained from a full calf crop. In other words, DNA can increase the accuracy of EPDs and reduce the risk to a commercial buyer of ending up with the wrong bull for their needs. Finally, when a sire is tested, those DNA results reside in a computer, and we may not need to retest the sire if we wish to start testing in our own cowherd and learning about factors such as sire efficiency and parentage.

2 – DNA-test replacement heifers

A way to get into DNA over time is to focus on testing replacement heifers. In a perfect world, we would test all candidate heifers, then use DNA-derived information to aid in our selection decisions; however, if we’re really constricted on budget, the next best choice might be to test the heifers we choose to breed. Testing heifers allows us over time to develop a fully tested cow herd.

3 – Test the cow herd

This is a full-on commitment, to collect DNA from every cow and begin using the resulting information to inform management decisions. Again, if budget is a concern, there may be groups of cows more valuable to test than others. For example, if you have a set of cows used to generate herd replacements, then these may be a priority for testing over a terminal type set of cows.

4 – Test the calf crop

This approach involves testing all calves (steers and heifers) and can be used for determining management or parentage verification to track cattle through to harvest with full individual data. This results in heifers entering the cowherd over time that are tested, and may also enable tracking of feeder calves on an individual basis with accurate pedigree.

The balance of investment in testing versus the potential return to management is going to vary tremendously across operations and will also impact the number of cattle tested, which cattle are tested, and the types of tests used.

Sire verification is an example. We may want to run multi-sire pastures and determine both which sires are working, but also only keep replacement heifers from specific bulls. Or we may want to step up an extra level and obtain DNA marker test results for various traits we can use to select replacements.

We may further refine our use of the technology to develop a total genetic management program, in which we pre-emptively mate specific sires and dams and match DNA with targeted end points in mind.

DNA testing is continually improving and accelerating the pace with which we can advance our operations, and is a technology that likely fits your operation today, although at varying degrees for individual farms, even if it’s simply through purchasing tested sires.

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That’s a good thing because last year, many cow-calf operators bred more replacement heifers that are now calving or about to calve.

Some of these producers told me they throw them into their main cowherd if they are big enough, while others are going to keep them separated until the new breeding season on pasture. I would also treat them as a special group in order to get them bred with a second calf.

Most people will agree that fresh first-calf cows (no longer called heifers, but new cows) need extra time and care to return to active reproduction. After all, they usually take a few extra weeks to a month to shrink their gravid uterus back to normal.

At the same time, they are new to nursing a newborn calf, and are expected themselves to grow into maturity. It is on my own personal wish-list that all new cows should have at least one or two strong and fertile heat-cycles by the start of a 60-day breeding season.

For example, I have known a few producers over the years who failed this challenge and their operation paid dearly. That’s because many of their young cows struggled with nutritional and health-related issues during the next few months; some failed to conceive and were culled. Yet, I feel it doesn’t have to turn-out adversely, if three special guidelines are implemented in most first calf-cow groups:

Best possible BCS

Maintain an optimum body condition score (BCS) of three to 3.5 (out of five). This work starts in hindsight with a well-balanced overwintering feed and management program that supports a gain of one to 1.5 lbs. per head per day by calving. After calving, a more enriched post-calving lactation diet (62-65 per cent TDN, 12 per cent protein) supports similar growth, yet takes on the extra nutrient demands of producing 10 litres of milk per day for nursing calves.

Account for limited dry matter intake

A new 1,000-lb. beef cow has less feed capacity, so it eats less than a 1,200-lb. brood cow. However, its total energy requirements are no different. As a result, this large nutrient load must be condensed into a denser post-calving diet, if their requirements are met. Given that a post-calving first-calf cow should consume about 2.5 per cent of her bodyweight in dry feed, a typical animal weighing 1,000-1,100 lbs. should consume 25 lbs. of feed on a dry matter basis per day.

Emphasize a well-balanced mineral/vitamin program

After calving until breeding, a well-formulated mineral should be fed at three to four ounces per day. This amount helps build up mineral/vitamin status that promotes active rebreeding and conception. It should be fed in loose form or mixed into the daily diet. My timeless favourite is an 18 per cent calcium, nine per cent phosphorus (three per cent magnesium) mineral (with fortified copper, zinc and selenium, plus extra vitamin A and E), which complements many types of replacement-cow diets made up mostly of drylot forages.

Consequently, here are some pre-pasture examples of post-calving lactation diets for 1,000-lb. first-calf-cows in a three to 3.5 BCS that implement my above three points:

Example 1

• Free-choice alfalfa-grass hay
• 1.0-1.5 kg barley or corn
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder mineral

Example 2

• 25-30 kg barley silage
• 3.0 kg grass hay
• 0.5 kg canola meal
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder mineral

Example 3

• 25-30 kg barley silage
• 1.5 kg straw
• 1.0 kg protein distillers’ grains
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder cattle mineral

The nice thing about these diets is that they are built upon feedstuffs that are readily available to most western provinces. However, there are years of drought and feed shortages, where overwintered first-calf cows become run down by calving time and people are often forced to feed them to increase BCS, afterward.

Fortunately, university field trials demonstrate that high-energy diets (usually meaning more grain is available) should be fed during a few weeks before and a few weeks after the start of breeding season. This allows some thin replacements to “catch up” to the rest of the cowherd by laying down enough body fat to achieve strong heats to be rebred.

It’s a last-resort practice that doesn’t always work. Therefore, I maintain that newly fresh cows are to be separated as a special group — first properly overwintered, calved out and then continuously fed/managed from calving to the breeding season.

Here, they might join the main cowherd on breeding pastures — or they might be bred on special pastures of their own for better chance of successful conception and finally dovetailed into maturity.

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Even good teenagers can be expensive. In our beef cattle production systems, the teenage role is filled by replacement heifers, and like teenagers a bit of understanding about the changes they are going through over those years can help improve the outcomes when we deal with them.

Whether we appreciate it or not, cow depreciation is a massive expense in most cow-calf operations. In many cases, it ranks as one of the top three expenses. Depreciation does not occur in a linear fashion with replacement heifers. Because there is a big upfront cost in either purchase or development, there can be a subsequent large depreciation cost for heifers that leave the herd early in life.

Understanding the basic physiology occurring over the roughly three-year time frame from heifer calf to second-calver can help us to manage this process, our expectations and the resulting cost to our operation. The first thing young heifers are going through is as basic as growth and puberty.

Estrus occurs based on a combination of age and weight/body condition. This means older heifers (those born in the first cycle) have a bit more time to reach the milestones required for ovulation and getting bred in the replacement program. If we expect our replacement heifers to calve at two years of age, they must be bred at 15 months of age.

If we look at a group of heifers born over the span of a 90-day calving season, when the oldest heifers are 15 months old, the youngest are 13 months and may not have even reached a physiological stage where estrus is possible. If we breed early to calve heifers ahead of the main cow herd, this may be exaggerated further. Heifers are less likely to be bred on their first ovulation than on subsequent ovulations, as the hormonal process of ovulation helps with reproductive organ development. For the best success, breeding heifers should be on their second or further ovulation by the time breeding season rolls around.

Traditional knowledge dictates that heifers should be roughly two-thirds of their mature size at first breeding. A lot of research indicates this is not necessarily true and that healthy heifers at 50 to 55 per cent of mature weight at breeding will perform as well and last as long in the cowherd as heifers exposed at a heavier weight range.

To put this in perspective, the two-thirds rule means that you expect an 850-pound breeding heifer to mature into a 1,300-pound cow. Managing to a lower ratio may allow us to reduce development costs and results in smaller mature size. Breeding success is higher when heifers are on a rising plane of nutrition through the breeding season.

If a heifer is not bred and but is still gaining weight over the summer, they are adding value and not taking a depreciation hit (market dependent). From a physiological perspective, a first- or second-trimester bred heifer does not take a lot of extra energy and basically just needs to keep growing and maturing. At this stage, the fetus is quite small and does not demand a lot of excess energy.

Most critical time

In the third trimester the heifer starts to have additional requirements as the fetus develops, her mammary system is starting to come to life and she continues to grow. This leads to the start of what’s likely the most critical time physiologically in her entire life — and is directly connected to the largest potential depreciation hit in a cow’s lifetime.

Firstly, the heifer must calve, and recover from that calving event. This includes basic repair of the reproductive tract. Even a normal unassisted birth will result in some trauma to that tract. However, a difficult birth may result in further damage that requires significantly more biological resources and time for the heifer to repair. Difficult births are one of the leading causes for heifers to fail at rebreeding. Additional physiological changes include milk production and raising a calf. More on that in a bit.

That first-calf heifer is also not yet at full mature size and still has some further growth of her own before she gets to that final mature size. Another interesting part of her development also occurs around the age of two. At roughly this stage of life, she replaces her incisors with a set of permanent incisors.

If our heifer calves at 24 months of age and we want her to calve again at three years old, she needs to rebreed at 27 months of age, or roughly 90 days post-partum. To obtain good conception rates, heifers should be happy, healthy and on a rising plane of nutrition. Physiologically, her body needs to tell her life is good, her nutritional needs are supported, her calf is supported and there are enough extra resources to support a pregnancy. This three-month time frame for rebreeding also roughly coincides with peak lactation, which can easily see a 20 to 30 per cent increase in nutrition requirements.

In a nutshell, physiologically we are asking that the first-calf heifer recover from calving, continue to grow, learn to be a mother, develop/maintain peak lactation, and rebreed while she may be between sets of teeth.

In a physiological context, it is readily apparent that it is much more difficult to get a first-calf heifer rebred than it is to breed a virgin heifer. It is also where we see the highest depreciation rates, as an open three-year-old generally has a massive value difference when compared to a bred three-year-old or a bred heifer. We also have not had enough calves from that female to cover the development costs or purchase price.

No matter how you slice it, teenagers can be challenging. Understanding this can help us in our operation to decide what extra support to provide to these cattle (or whether to provide extra support) or if we should own these young cattle in the first place or examine alternative replacement strategies.

If your ranch pregnancy checks or markets open cows, it may be worth tracking the percentage of first calf heifers that wind up on the truck heading into their third year. It may help you adjust management to reduce the depreciation costs associated with cows that take an early exit from the herd. Because the depreciation cost is so high, there may be cheaper alternatives providing further support to that specific set of animals as they grow through those teenage years.

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Some people have taken advantage that three-month-old replacement dairy heifers have a fully developed rumen and can truly digest lower quality/cost forages.

There is nothing wrong in feeding this way, but these forages must be well balanced with other more nutritious feedstuffs that together meet animals’ essential nutrient requirements. Plus, we need to avoid the common pitfalls, such as digestive upsets, which are associated with some diets — again, by providing the right overall nutrition.

Regardless, I always keep in mind that good dry matter intake (DMI) comes first in setting up any well-balanced heifer replacement feeding program. It’s synonymous with essential energy/protein/mineral/vitamin intake that drives growth, optimum body condition and good health by the time they are ready to be put on the milk-line.

It has been my experience that many promising replacements don’t make their full-performance potentials and are culled, because their dry matter intakes were ignored or challenged.

Such good DMI is controlled by the natural forces of heifers consuming these forage-based diets and its ensuing fermentation in the rumen. At the same time, the rate of feed passage through a heifer’s digestive systems comes into play in a big way, which not only controls good dry matter intake, but almost every digestive process afterward, including cud-chewing.

That’s especially so when we feed them high-fibre, lower-quality diets, such as proposed by South Dakota State University a few years ago.

The SDSU researchers fed high-fibre shredded corn stalks supplemented with wet distillers grains to help meet the energy and protein requirements of a group of growing dairy heifers. The SDSU results showed heifer gains — although lower than conventional diets formulated with corn silage, haylage and alfalfa — were quite acceptable. A significant cost saving of 40 per cent was recorded because corn stalks and wet corn distillers grains were purchased at much lower cost than other routine feedstuffs.

Along the same dietary lines to save on feed costs I routinely balance a bred-heifer replacement diet (15–22 months) for a 150-lactating dairy. This diet is limited by the quantity of good-quality forages such as alfalfa hay and drought-stricken barley silage. Yet this farmer has a decent supply of low-quality barley straw and slough hay. So his current diet is what you see in the table here:

In review of this diet, I believe we are barely meeting these bred heifers’ dietary energy (64 per cent total digestible nutrients and protein (14 per cent) needs for 1.8 pounds gain per day. Plus, this total mixed ration is simply too dry and a couple of kilos of added water would improve its density. The funny thing is that DMI by these replacement heifers during the last few months has been acceptable (2.8 to three per cent of body weight).

Nevertheless, during our last cold spell of –30 C in January, a few heifers showed signs of anorexia, inadequate manure output and abdominal distention — all encompassing signs of impaction.

Any threat of dietary impaction is serious and that is why I am vigilant of it when feeding low-quality forages to replacement dairy heifers. It can be fatal, and stems from:

• High forage-fibre content: the rate of digestion is slow since it takes a long time to ferment and break down lots of cellulose/hemicellulose fibre.
• Inadequate protein: heifer diets often do not supply enough dietary protein-metabolites to the forage-digesting rumen bacteria. It leads to decreases in the overall rate of forage-fibre digestion and feed passage, including DMI.
• Inadequate water: in feed digestion, water is a primary lubricant. For example, a particular dry heifer diet during an impaction incident is possibly more viscous, which impedes its movement throughout the rumen-gastrointestinal tract.

It is my understanding that this producer drenched each impacted dairy heifer with a gallon of mineral oil. Within a couple of days, animals were up to the water trough and feed-bunk. It was a lesson for me, namely that it is important to meet all essential nutrient requirements for growing and healthy dairy heifers. It can be done utilizing a cost-effective lower-quality forage as part of their whole diet, yet there should be a wide margin of adequate nutrition built into each diet.

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Some post-weaned heifers are not well fed and poor nutrition is almost guaranteed to make them struggle throughout their first lactation. Other replacement heifers are fed too well. As a result, they become fat, which is proven to affect lifetime health and production. Somewhere in the middle of extremes is well-balanced heifer nutrition. With a little homework, we can feed them properly, so they can become profitable dairy cows.

As a dairy nutritionist, I would love to visit a dairy farm and have immediate proof that any of their dairy heifers are eating with vigour a well-balanced post-weaning diet that achieves 2.5 per cent of their body weight/dry matter intake (BW/DMI).

This proof would show in black and white; making them grow ideally at about 1.8-2.2 lbs. per day until they are bred at 13-15 months. Unfortunately, most people don’t keep these kinds of records. Most of the time, I usually catch producers at the busiest time of the day and they tell me to go look at the replacement heifers and see what I think.

Recently, seeing a pen of young unbred heifers, I took into account their health status and body condition. I also looked at what kind of feed was in their feed bunk. I judged that these heifers were in excellent health and most had a body condition score of around 3.0-3.5 (re: one = emaciated, five = obese). It was my understanding that grass hay was just put down as their second feeding, which followed a morning TMR of ensiled and dried forage, some grain and a mineral-vitamin premix.

On a footnote, I feared that one or two of these heifers might be borderline over-conditioned, which university research demonstrates that such dairy heifers will still lay down a lot of frame and lean tissue compared to those heifers on a more growth-controlled program. But, many often become fat and thus ruin their chances to become good milkers. Unfortunately, once a heifer becomes over-conditioned, there is really no way to reverse it.

Recommended requirements

Therefore, I recommend diets formulated with matching nutrient requirements of unbred replacement heifers that support recommended growth rates and optimum body condition scores. These are: an energy level of 66-68 per cent TDN (total digestible nutrients), 14-16 per cent protein and a complement of essential minerals and vitamins. Then once they are bred, relax both energy and protein intakes by 10-15 per cent, depending on their current BCS status.

Dairy producers can usually provide such well-balanced diets for their growing replacement dairy heifers. It has been my experience that these diets usually fall in three different categories:

• Simple hay and grain rations: One producer I know runs about a 150-cow dairy and segregates his heifers in three pens: unbred two to five months, unbred five to 15 months and then bred heifers. He feeds an alfalfa-grass mix free-choice in the bunk and an 18 per cent heifer grower pellet medicated with rumensin in self-feeders. The bred heifers have their forage mixed 75:25 with straw.
• Straightforward TMR diets: Another producer who runs a 200-cow dairy segregates his bred animals from his six- to 15-month unbred heifers. He makes up a bred-group TMR diet consisting of corn silage, alfalfa hay, straw, no grain and a min-vit premix. He dilutes this diet with about 25 per cent second-cut alfalfa hay plus 1.0 kg of grain corn for his six- to 15-month unbred heifers. His two to six-month-old heifers are housed at the other end of his farm and they are fed high-quality timothy hay and 2.0 kg of a 16 per cent texturized heifer grain diet.
• Low-cost diets: South Dakota University mixed low-quality-high fibre corn stalks supplemented with wet distillers grains to match the energy and protein requirements of growing dairy heifers. Weight gains on this diet were slightly lower than traditional heifer diets, but cost of gain was cut in half.

By feeding any of these practical diets, dairy producers should be able to match their young replacement heifers’ nutrient requirements for good growth and development. Most of the time, we don’t need written records to see if young replacement heifers are growing well. All we need to do is walk the feed bunk and assess their current body conditions, which tells us if they are on the right dietary track – up until they become good first-lactation milk cows.

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