Expansion on a budget
By Dairy Herd news staff  |  Monday, May 11, 2009

Expansion is still possible in hard economic times; you just have to be creative. Joe Harner, agricultural engineer at Kansas State University, shared these tips for maximizing facility capacity and heifer throughput at the annual Dairy Calf & Heifer Conference.

• Reduce breeding age. “If you can reduce breeding age by one month, you can increase capacity (or facility throughput) by 6 percent,” he said. In other words, each month that breeding age is delayed past 15 months of age results in a 6-percent reduction in capacity.
• Move heifers off-site after breeding. This increases throughput or capacity 5 percent, based on a 22-month age-at-first calving.
• Lease facilities. However, “know and identify existing problems” first, he cautioned.
• ·Cull earlier. Cull animals in the lowest percentile for growth at four to six months of age rather than after they are bred. This can yield a 10-percent change in capacity. If calves are below the median (50^th percentile for weight gain), “there’s a high probability” that they’re only going to “take up space” in your facility, he said.
• Move offsite heifers back home sooner. If you can ship bred heifers back home one month after breeding or at 16 months of age, you can move 37 percent more heifers through a facility, he said.