Dairy Heifer Grazing

On the 1st May, saw our weaner dairy heifers change to the next grazing contract.  They will remain on our farm for the next year till 30th April, and will go to the bull in October.

As part of the change over, we invited the owner to come and weigh the heifers with us.  The purpose of this was that he could see what each animal weighed, look at their condition, see where they had been grazing and see their residuals.  As well, it gave us a great opportunity to sit down and talk about the new contract which had been drafted prior to this.  Things we discussed is expectation of animal health programme, bull management, weight targets, and of course price.  Over a coffee and free and frank discussion, we hope that we have come to a win:win contract.  Whilst it is hoped that we never have to challenge the contract, we have had a discussion about our expectations.

The Kiwi cross heifers, with a strong jersey influence, were probably 10 kg behind our personal expected target (would have been nice to do closer to 100 kg average weight gain).  Our overall average was 208 kg (target Xbred 200 kg or Jersey 180 kg).  We have set ourselves are target of 300 kg for going to the bull in October (or a minimum of 280 kg), and 400 kg to go home 30th April.

Mob of heifers

Alice and the heifers getting to know each other

The heifers have had another weigh. Being fed on an all grass system, the heifers were weighed again this last week.  We were a little disappointed with 227 kg average, with liveweight gain only 0.25 kg/hd/day.  Probably a bit of silage added to the diet to provide some roughage would have helped as the dry matter content of the grass is fairly low at present.  The predicted average fro Xbred at this time 230 kg or Jersey 204 kg.  Based on this we are not far off the pace.  We have good cover in front so will be interesting to see what they will be on next weigh. 

The interesting  point is that without weighing, and purely observing it would be hard to predict the weight of these animals, as often the one you would presume to be heavier is not.

We've also had 100 cows for 6 weeks.  They arrived 28th May in good condition and ready to eat grass. 

Alice counting the cows off the truck

 We weighed the cows a day after they arrived, and we provide a list of weights to the owners.  A day before they go home, we weighed them again and provide comparative data to the owners.  The cows put on 0.86 kg/hd/day whilst here, with a portion of that weight being foetal.  We had one cow that slipped early on and she went home early.  The rest went home on the 9th July.

Cows grazing on the last day before going home

Last supper!

Heading for the trucks