Effect Of Nutrition And Management Of Dairy Heifers On Resultant Cow Longevity

Longevity as defined by the Random House Dictionary is “the duration of an individual’s life”. Currently dairy cows average 2.8 calvings in a ‘lifetime (Cassell, 2005). Raising high quality heifers that will express their genetic potential for milk production and allow optimal duration in the milking herd (longevity) is a priority objective to balance the investment of 15-20% of total costs of milk production with a net return to the dairy (Lormore, 2005). In a study evaluating heifer raising costs to first calving age on eight New York dairy farms, Karzses (2005) found that feed accounted for 49% of the total costs and labor 18%. This suggests a focus on nutrition and management factors are critical with implication to survival in the milking herd. The applied dynamics of the process to attain a balance of investment return and longevity involves attention to many variables.