A task performed correctly in a calf barn today could ultimately result in more milk produced on that dairy 2-3 years down the road, according to consulting veterinarian Scott Earnest, DVM.
Earnest is Director of Technical Services at ProAGtive Technologies, a dairy nutrition and management consulting group based in Sun Prairie, Wis.
He said while it’s a long way from Point A to Point B, foundational calf health is absolutely necessary to develop the kind of female replacements that are ready to perform and work hard for the dairy.
On a recent episode of The Dairy Podcast Show, Earnest also discussed the shifting strategies of dairy heifer development. Thanks to sexed semen, genomic selection, and other efforts to “right-size” heifer production, many dairies are dialing in on raising only the number of heifers they will need as replacements.
“The thing that’s really critical is that now you can’t take any of them for granted. Every single one of them has to turn out to be a quality replacement if you’re going to raise exactly what you need,” Earnest advised.
Of course, there always are at least a few cases of “slippage” between the time heifer calves are born and they start paying the bills as lactating cows. Earnest advises dairies to track those metrics in stages – stillbirths, deaths for birth to weaning, post-weaning death and removal prior to calving, and herd exits during first lactation.
On some dairies, that non-completion rate can be as high as 50% or more. But Earnest said the best-performing herds have a loss/removal rate prior to second calving of 30% or less.
He said when those animals exit the system, their value must be considered in the dairy’s total cost of raising replacements. “Rather than thinking of the best-case scenario of what a heifer costs you to raise when things go well, you’ve really got to bundle all of your expenses for your entire heifer program, and divide that by the number you successfully raised,” he advised. “The most expensive part of a heifer program is the ones you lose.”
Earnest said the only thing more expensive than losing them along the way is raising poor performers. Especially with the work that is now being done with lung ultrasound, he said we now know there can be problems with heifers at just 2-3 weeks old that don’t manifest until 5 months of age or older.
What’s more, an initial case of scours can send heifers on a death spiral – sometimesa slow one. “A lot of calves that get a low-grade case of pneumonia at a very early age are susceptible to that because they have been struggling with scours pathogens,” Earnest suggested.
He said successfully managing calf health comes down to a “big 3” of maternity pen management, colostrum delivery, and hygiene. The hygiene piece is highly dependent on choosing the right sanitizing and disinfecting products, then using them at the correct contact time, pH, and water temperature.
“All three of those factors are measurable and documentable,” said Earnest, noting that employees need methods to check and verify those details so protocols are truly implemented, not just written and filed away.
“I really like to challenge employees to sign their name or initials to what they do and document some of those key checkpoints,” he noted. “It can make the difference between people cutting corners and people taking pride in their work.”
He said progress flows upstream when protocols are implemented routinely – less scours means less pneumonia, which leads to fewer poor doers, then better average daily gains, larger first-breeding size and size at first calving, and ultimately, more first-lactation milk.
“To really win people over and get employees to take it seriously, you have to come up with measurables that you can show them,” Earnest advised. “’Look, we’re losing half as many calves out of the program as we used to’” or “’We’re seeing heifers weigh more by the same age at first calving.’”
Finally, he said it’s critical to communicate regularly and celebrate those successes with employees routinely. Rather than calling meetings only when things are going wrong, he counseled, “You need to honor the fact that things are going well, and that a lot of people did good work to help make it so.”
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