Heifer prices stay firm
Dairy heifer prices continue to hold firm, as producers respond to rising milk prices, says Greg Scheer, dairy analyst with Doane Advisory Services in St. Louis. Prices are generally a little higher than last month. Top-end springing heifers topped out at $2,175 in Pennsylvania. Calf prices offered a wide range, but seem to be in good demand with Ithaca, Wis., ranging from $485 to $585.

Welcome to the May 28 edition of Calf and Heifer Adviser, published by Dairy Herd Management^® magazine.

Calf and Heifer Adviser and its core sponsors are committed to providing you with the information you need to make informed and timely business decisions.

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Physical form of starter affects intake
A new study shows calves prefer texturized starter, but their feed efficiency may be better on a pelleted diet. The study, published in the June Journal of Dairy Science, found that overall starter intake was greater for calves fed a texturized starter than calves fed a pelleted form. From 12 to 64 days of age, the texturized treatment group ate about 13.5 pounds more starter per calf than the pelleted group. Both starters had the same ingredients and nutrient composition. However, because final bodyweight was similar between both treatment groups, the feed efficiency of the pelleted-fed calves was actually better than the texturized starter group. In other words, they achieved the same amount of growth using less starter.

Graze heifers on winter annual forages
Researchers at Ohio State University extended the grazing season for Holstein and Jersey heifers with annual ryegrass and a mixture of oats and cereal rye. The crops were planted last September and grazed from Nov. 20, 2006 to Jan. 4, 2007. The oat-and-cereal-rye mixture was grazed again from March 26 to April 10. The annual ryegrass was grazed again from April 2 to April 10. The oat-and-cereal-rye mixture resulted in 88 grazing days per acre per heifer with a 65-cent cost per pound of gain. The annual ryegrass provided 72 grazing days per acre per heifer with a cost per pound of gain of 50 cents. For more details, follow this link.

Calves ready for weaning before you are
Most calves are ready for weaning when they eat 2 pounds of starter per day for two or three days in a row. Two pounds of starter doesn’t even cover a 3.5-inch business card standing on end in a calf bucket, says Steve Hayes, technical service manager with Milk Products, Chilton, Wis. Yet, Hayes has been on farms where the buckets are heaping with starter and calves are still getting milk replacer twice per day.
    If your calves are ready, think about earlier weaning.

Protect heifers from BVD infection
Can you assure your clients that their heifers — and their unborn calves — will return home without any new infectious diseases? Sounds simple enough, but with BVD a calf can become infected in the womb even if its dam is not visibly sick or persistently infected, explains Belinda Thompson, veterinarian with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. If a pregnant heifer comes in contact with a BVD-infected heifer on your premises, it can return home to give birth to a persistently-infected calf. Your operation is then responsible for that infection. In order to assure your clients that their heifers and the calves they carry are coming home BVD-free, you must establish a BVD-free heifer-raising facility.

At-a-glance weaning status
Colored clothespins tell the calf feeders at El-Vi Farms how much pasteurized milk to feed each animal. Here’s what each color means:

• Pink = 2 quarts twice a day.
• White = 3 quarts twice a day (starting at seven to 10 days old.)
• Blue = 4 quarts twice a day (starting at two to three weeks old.)
• Green = back down to 2 quarts twice a day (starting at six weeks old.)
• No clothespin = calf is taken off milk (starting at seven weeks old.)

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