Heifers hold key to future productivity

Gippsland brothers Jason and Brendan Bermingham make absolutely sure their dairy heifers are well grown by joining, and it’s not even very hard they say.

“We run them on a property about 8km from the home farm, so it would be easy to send them out there and forget about them until joining,” said Jason. “But we’ve experienced first hand the value of well-grown heifers so we’ve come up with an easy system that works for us.”

Calving ease may be the most obvious benefit of well-grown heifers but what the brothers value most is a lifetime of high milk production, good health and fertility, which add up to longevity in the herd.

Their 700-cow, split calving herd is milked on two neighbouring dairy farms near Sale, with another two nearby properties used for young stock and fodder conservation.

The dairy business is driven by Jason’s parents ‘Bruiser’ (John) and Evelyn, their sons, Jason, and Brendan and Jason’s wife Casey. The whole family is actively involved on the farm, including brother, Nicholas, and sister Abbey. Another sister, Holly, also regularly worked on the farm until she became a nurse.

About 200 replacement heifers are reared each year, which have been used to build herd numbers until recently.

“We are just getting to the stage where the herd size is about right but we’ll continue to rear all our heifer calves because it gives us more options – we can be more flexible with culling or sell them at various stages for added income if needed,” said Jason.

Aiming for a mature liveweight of 650kg, the Berminghams weigh heifers regularly and check against InCalf’s targets to monitor whether they are progressing well or need to take action.

We put the ones below target into a separate group which receive extra pellets and hay.

“We are quite rigid about targets – even if heifers are just one kilogram off their target weight, they go into the under-target group. It might just be because they are the youngest in their batch, but they still need to reach their target weight by joining time,” said Jason.

All heifers are weighed at six months and just before joining. Those below target at six months are also weighed at nine months to decide if they’ve caught up to target or need continued extra feed. The weighing prior to joining identifies heifers that are under target and will be held over to the next mating batch. Having a split calving herd gives some flexibility because under-weight heifers can be held over for six months rather than losing a whole year.

Just 10% of last season’s spring-drop calves fell below their target weight for age at six months (162kg), with the average well above target at 207kg.

The effort and cost of weighing heifers regularly is trivial according to the Berminghams. They use a service through a local vet centre which supplies the scales and a technician. All the Berminghams have to do is keep a steady flow of heifers coming up to the race.

“Actually it’s quite an enjoyable task because we get to find out whether the results of our efforts are paying off,” he said.

The main cost associated with the Bermingham’s system is the extra feed provided for the ‘below target’ heifer groups.

“But that more than pays for itself in extra milk production throughout the cow’s life. And weighing means we only have to invest in extra feed for the 10% who are below target, which is a lot cheaper than 100%,” said Jason.