PHOTO: JOHN MORAN
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Quality feed for healthy heifers in the tropics
Farmers in the tropics should commit enough time and resources to rearing their own replacement heifers, says Australian livestock specialist and author Dr John Moran. He says that because the animal is not producing anything saleable, farmers tend not to put too much emphasis on this part of their farm.
BY RENÉ GROENEVELD, AUSTRALIA CORRESPONDENT D
A well-managed smallholder dairy farm in Vietnam.
r Moran has written several books about dairy farming, many of them specifically about tropical dairy farms in South-East Asia. According to Dr Moran, farmers in the tropics tend not to put too
much emphasis on rearing their own replacement heifers “because the animal is growing, and not producing anything saleable. Milking cows are the key to their operation. This has always been a problem. Farmers haven’t been growing their heifers out properly.” The age of first calving should be 24 to 26 months, Dr Moran
points out. “But in many smallholder dairy farms in the tropics it is often more than 30 to 35 months. That’s another 6 months of feeding the heifer, before she generates any income.”
Colostrum management Dr Moran says a better emphasis on the heifer starts with co- lostrum management. “A dairy cow is unique in that it does not allow the movement of antibodies across the placenta. Colostrum feeding management is important for calves to develop an immunity to infections and bacteria as they grow up. These antibodies can only be absorbed across the calves’ gut into their blood for their first 48 hours of life.” The livestock specialist points out that the essence of good calf rearing depends on two major nutritional factors. First, an adequate intake of high-quality colostrum within the first day of life and, second, feeding management to encourage early rumen development. Weaning management is also key to rearing a healthy animal, he says. “You’ll find that farmers in a lot of countries in the tropics import calf milk replacer. That’s going to make sure the heifer calf grows properly. So that the calf can get to its target of 0.7 to 0.8 kg of live weight gain and gets to 280 kg of live weight at 12 months of age, if it is a Friesian.” By getting the calf to 280 kg at 12 months, farmers can en- sure that the heifer calf is going to be cycling at a younger age. “You would be able to get to first calving at an age of 24 months for 5,000 or 6,000 litre cows. It’s all about optimis- ing the environment so the calf can grow at its genetic poten- tial. You can add thousands of litres of milk production to a well-grown heifer.” Farmers should strive to get 300 days of lactation, Dr Moran says. “Because the management is then directed to the cow cycling at 30 days of having its first calf. Consequently, the calving interval is smaller. You want a calving interval of 12 months.”
Heat stress and cow comfort Ideally, farmers can wean the calf at 6 to 8 weeks of age. “As long as we ensure there is sufficient good quality sources of nutrients,” Dr Moran says. “In the tropics, farmers rear their heifer calves carefully until weaning but often neglect them thereafter. In the humid tropics young calves are very sus- ceptible to heat stress. I have been to many smaller farms there, and poor ventilation can be a problem. Large-scale
28 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 9, No. 2, 2022
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