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Feeding Breeding Heifers in the late Autumn/early Winter period

Breeding heifers are the future of the herd. It is important that they are assessed in autumn to see are they up to target weight. It’s too late to decide the following January that they are behind target as there will not be enough time to get them right before breeding. Feed breeding heifers well from late autumn onwards and reassess them in early January and the feed can be reduced if necessary. Get a second opinion if necessary but ensure that all heifers are over 220kg at this stage. They need to be 60% of their mature weight come breeding on the 15th of April of the following year. For most breeds that is 330kg at breeding. Most heifers will need at least 2kgs of meal a day from late autumn to Jan 1st.

The table below shows the effect of not having heifers heavy enough at breeding. There is a reduced in- calf rate for lighter heifers. Not alone will you have lower in-calf rates when heifers are lighter at bulling but this will also carry forward to lower milk yield in their first lactation. So all the data clearly points to making sure the heifers are big and heavy enough at bulling. Small animals should be separated for preferential treatment now to get them up to speed.