Contract Rearing F


COULD HELP HEIFER PERFORMANCE


Contract heifer rearing can help free up space for herd expansion or simply allow the milking herd to be better managed as Ben Watts of Kite Consulting explains


or a number of dairy farmers, the opportunities offered by putting some or all of their heifer rearing out to contract can be a progressive step forward. It can allow dairy farmers to concentrate all their management time and resources to milk production, rather than rearing, growing and serving heifers.


It is not perhaps for everyone, and agreements do vary, but it is growing in popularity. However, before going down this road it is important to consider how it may fit into your dairying system, and the points you may wish to consider before entering into an agreement to have your heifers contract reared in future.


Key Factors


1 You need to establish the true costs of rearing heifers on your farm, in order to know if contract rearing will be cost effective, and to help you develop a workable agreement.


2 Contract rearing can reduce your labour requirements, or free up resources such as labour and buildings to hold extra cows (or house the current herd under less pressure).


3 Contract heifer rearing can also help negate NVZ requirements and slurry storage issues.


4 Contract rearing can improve the quality and timeliness of the rearing process (when done correctly)


5 It is vitally important that a contract/agreement is in place, which delivers targets in terms of calving age and growth.


6 The agreement must be fair and equitable to both farmer and contract rearer.


The Cost of Rearing Heifers When correctly costed, many farmers will be surprised that rearing 50 THE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2015


a heifer to the point of calving will be on average about £1250 a head. This figure includes an allowance for the cost of the heifer calf itself, all the inputs and overhead costs, and also a figure for interest on working capital for the rearing period.


Two Year Calving - Crucial


Obviously there is a range in costs, with massive variation linked mainly to age at calving. Our clients target 24 month calving (730 days), whatever the breed, this means animals need to be in calf by day 445, and to achieve this you need to start serving at 390 days or 13 months of age, otherwise quite simply you will miss the boat. That gives the rearer or farmer 55 days to play with in terms of heat detection, which is just 2.5 heat cycles!


Target Focused


If you are the contract heifer rearer these targets effect how much you will be paid, put simply it is very much in your interest to hit the targets. Often the issue with the farmer rearer is simply that the group of heifers was not put up for service soon enough rather than a lack of growth performance.


These are the kind of targets and measures that need to be fully understood and written into any agreement, but we often go further than that, and lay down


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