Heifer Rearing: A Costly Proposition
Raising high-quality replacement heifers is an investment that often exceeds the market value of those animals, according to analyses by a number of university dairy Extension specialists.
Penn State University experts compared data spanning 2016 to 2018 from Pennsylvania dairy herds to similar analysis of herds in the upper Midwest performed by the University of Minnesota. Not surprisingly, they found feed was the largest expenditure in all heifer-rearing enterprises, with an annual feed cost of $405/head/year for the Midwest, and $409/head/year for the Pennsylvania group. When evaluating total feed cost from birth to freshening, the Midwest group spent $767/head, while the Pennsylvania group spent $857/head.
Data published by the University of Wisconsin in 2017 focusing on heifer feed costs showed expenses from birth to 24 months of $904/head. And an Iowa State University analysis in early 2019 showed a total feed cost per head of $1,167 to raise a heifer from birth to 24 months.
The Penn State authors noted the disparity between the Pennsylvania and Midwest groups could stem from the fact that the Midwest group transferred heifers into the milking group more efficiently than the Pennsylvania herds, with Midwest herds transferring 53% of their heifers into the milking string annually, compared to 48% for the Pennsylvania herds.
This 5% transfer difference meant that more Pennsylvania heifer remained in the heifer-rearing enterprise longer, accruing more expenses before freshening. The Iowa State document points out that shaving a month off of freshening age – from 24 months to 23 – saves about $93/head in total rearing costs (not just feed).
Still, feed cost per head per day was remarkably similar between the Pennsylvania and Midwest groups, with Pennsylvania at $1.12/head/day, and $1.11/head/day for the Midwest. Feed cost was $1.24/head/day for the Wisconsin group, and $1.60/head/day for the Iowa group, both based on heifers raised to 24 months.
When the data sets from Pennsylvania, Midwest and Iowa factored in non-feed expenses such as housing, manure storage, bedding, breeding expenses and veterinary care, the total rearing cost per head per day again netted out very similarly: Pennsylvania - $2.65; Midwest - $2.40; and Iowa - $2.40.
Finally, the grand total for raising a heifer from birth to freshening: Pennsylvania -- $2,026; Midwest - $1,662; and Iowa - $2,241. Because daily costs were similar, the explanatory factor for the variation of total costs appears to be time spent on feed before freshening. These figures also do not take into account today’s higher feed costs.
What’s the best way to trim heifer-rearing costs? Raise as much of your own feed as possible, according to the Pennsylvania authors. “In the Pennsylvania data set, farms with the highest amount of home raised feeds – including all grass hay and corn grain – were consistently among the highest-profit farms,” they noted.
They continued, “This supports a conclusion the Penn State Dairy Extension Team has drawn from many years of financial planning with dairy producers: farms that have a good match of crop acres to the total animal units on the farm are positioned for higher profitability.”
