An Economic Analysis of the Costs Associated with Pre-Weaning Management Strategies for Dairy Heifers

摘要

Simple SummaryRearing of replacement female calves on a dairy farm is of critical importance to maintain herd sizes, improve the genetic quality of the herd, and remain economically sustainable. A 2-year investment period is needed for replacement female heifers to grow before entering the milking herd. The management of replacements over this 2-year period can vary greatly among operations, making it difficult to compare producers’ cost to benchmark. The objective of this project was to develop a model to calculate the cost of rearing a replacement heifer from birth to weaning under different housing, milk source, allotments, and labor and health management decisions to be used as a dairy farm decision support tool. We calculated the cost for management options with general cost values. We found that the average feed cost represented 46% of the total cost while labor, and fixed and variable costs represented 33%, 9%, and 12%, respectively. The total cost increased as milk allotment increased, but cost per Kg of gain decreased. The ranges in total cost within each management scenario often exceed the difference in cost from one scenario to the next. In conclusion, variable costs have the potential to vary among operations, playing a major role in the total cost of rearing replacements from birth to weaning.