Wednesday, 23 September 2015 12:44

Getting yearling heifers in calf

Written by 
Heifers must reach puberty to cycle and get in calf. Heifers must reach puberty to cycle and get in calf.

Yearling heifer mating is fast approaching: have you got it sorted? LIC asks. 

No matter what the payout is, the fundamental principles remain the same.

Heifers must reach puberty to cycle and get in calf. Puberty is driven by liveweight in cattle (about 47% of mature liveweight on average); check their weights, enter weights into Minda to see how they are tracking, check  growth rates and check to see if they are all cycling.

Heifers take about 10 days longer to cycle once they calve down as 2-year-olds. Mate yearling heifers 7 -10 days ahead of the main herd to help them next year.

Service bulls need to be sound and suitable. A difficult calving or a slow calving pattern as 2-year-olds can set heifers back badly.

Sufficient numbers of high quality healthy bulls is a must for natural mating of heifers.

  • Select bulls carefully to be easy calving and fertile
  • Reject aggressive bulls and monitor bull performance in the heifer mob
  • Yearling bulls: use 1:20 heifers; 2-year-olds 1:30
  • Ensure they are fully BVD tested and vaccinated. Sight the vet certificate.

Underground heifers

There may still be time to flush them up, as a group or as poor individuals. Very small heifers are a poor investment. It may be more economic to cut your losses now on the poor performing tail-enders.

Check the feed plan with your grazier

Some synchrony programmes can advance reaching puberty, if the line is undergrown. Talk to your vet.

Keep them growing. They need to catch up before they are 22 months if they are to survive and thrive in the herd

Don’t let animal health disasters rob you of pregnancies; create a sound heifer health plan to keep them growing and pregnant.

Replacement heifers

Replacement heifers are a big investment, in most cases costing over $1200 to rear through to a milking cow. 

It costs the same to rear a high BW animal as a low BW one.
Review your replacement rate and replacement quality; invest the money in the best genetic merit animals.

Rear the number that suits your business needs and future plans. If grazing is limited, it may pay to put the money into fewer higher quality animals.

More like this

LIC ends year with $30.6m profit

Herd improvement company LIC has ended the 2024-25 financial year in a strong position - debt-free and almost quadrupling its net profit.

LIC Space folds for good

Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter