POPM 4230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Dairy Cattle, Weaning, Cattle
30 Nov 2016
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Produce at least enough replacements to maintain milking herd. On average [raise heifers] better than cows they replace. Monitor growth at weaning, 6, 9, 12 mths of age. Age at 1st breeding = 12-14 mths. Age at 1st calving = 23-24 mths. ~ likely to have higher milk production if calving sooner (calving at 22. 6-25. 45wks) ~more opportunity to produce milk (3 mths longer productive time in herd) ~ max milk production at 1500kg, in the 90th -95th percentile. Every additional kg of bw at calving leads to an increase of 14. 5 kg of milk in the 1st lactation. ~ milk yield first 300 dim, kg correlated to increased bw at calving, kg (~ milk yield depends on bw at calving) ~ replacements are the 2nd highest cost in dairy production, feed is #1. Feed, replacement, labor, fixed costs, maintenance, misc, energy. ~replacement age will be based on culling and age of 1st calf.
