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Dairy cow lifecycle
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Life cycle of dairy cow | Lactate for a year, dry for two months, breed and have another calf |
| What is required for lactation? | A calf |
| Replacement heifer | A female dairy calf |
| Life cycle of replacement heifer | 8-10 months to reach puberty, cycle for 4 months, return to herd at 2 years |
| Bull calf | A male dairy calf |
| What do you do with bull calves? | Sell them to market within a week of birth |
| Sex-separated semen breeding | Bull semen is separated by sex so only female semen is given to dairy cows |
| Beef on dairy calf | Male dairy cow semen is given to a beef cow for a high-quality market bull calf |
| How much of a herd is replaced yearly? | 35% |
| What is most important about raising replacement heifers? | Keep them healthy |
| Weight distribution of replacement heifers | Breeding weight by 13-15 months, calving weight by 22-24 months |
| Why is weight important for replacement heifers? | Little cows don't make milk |
| Why are replacement heifers trending younger? | Minimizes costs |
| Colostrum | First secretion from the mammary gland after giving birth, very rich in antibodies |
| Antibodies | What the body makes the fight diseases |
| Why is colostrum so important to get into calves? | Calves are not born with antibodies so this is how they fight infection |
| 3 Qs of colostrum | Quantity, Quality, Quickly |
| Quantity of colostrum | Get 10% of their body weight in them within 10 hours, 4 quarts for a big cow |
| Quality of colostrum | High concentration of immunoglobulin (IgG), low bacteria count, high quality has more antibodies |
| How do you measure the quality of colostrum? | Brix refractometer, measures IgG |
| Quickly of colostrum | Get colostrum in during the first milking |
| How is colostrum put into calves? | Milked from mother, bottle or tube feeding |
| Most common housing before weaning calves | Singular outdoor hutches |
| What are calves fed? | Milk replacer, grain, water |
| What is most important about what the calves are being fed? | High protein and high fat foods |
| Calf ranches | When producers will outsource calves to large places for them to be grown until 2 years |
| Why aren't calves kept with their mothers or other calves? | Disease risks, cross-suckling (calf-to-calf only) |
| Pros of paired calf housing | Improves behavior in social group status, increases feed intake, benefits to public imaging |
| Large group housing | Large group of calves are kept in a room together |
| Mob feeders | Large tank of milk that all calves feed from |
| Automatic feeders | Single feeders that put calves into restraints, scan their tags, and feed them and gather individual information |
| What is the biggest risk with communal feeders? | Disease transmisson |
| Weaning | Removing the bottle and putting calves into the same pen, feeding only grain and hay |
| Target weight before weaning | Double weight within 60 days |
| Target weight up until 12 months | Gain 2 lbs a day |
| Percent mature body weight at first breeding | 55% mature weight (770-990 lbs) |
| Percent mature body weight at first calving | 85% mature weight (1190-1530 lbs) |
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