Give your heifer grower a raise

Are you paying your contract heifer grower enough to compensate for decreased feed efficiency as heifers age? Follow these guidelines to make sure.

Any parent can understand the phrase “eating you out of house and home” when it comes to growing children. Well, heifers can be a lot like kids. As they get older, they eat more. Thus, they start to cost more, too. Although you don’t worry about your kids being “feed efficient,” you do when it comes to your heifers.

While feed intake increased with a heifer’s age, efficiency of gain decreases. And, the cost to raise a heifer per day and the cost per pound of gain increases with size. So, what’s the best way to compensate the custom grower raising your heifers? Develop compensation guidelines based on weight. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1

Establish growth guidelines

Producers and custom heifer growers enter into a heifer-raising contract to protect the interests of both parties. Consequently, both parties need to establish good communication, says Maynard Moen, custom grower and Land O’Lakes consultant in Mora, Minn. That includes specifying heifer growth requirements in your heifer-raising contract--with age as one of the main criteria.

For example, if you deliver heifers to a grower at four months of age, make sure they weigh approximately 280 pounds, with a height of 37 inches. Use “Growth goals for Holstein heifers,” below as a guideline. In addition, you and your grower need to:

1. Define a weight range and age when heifers should be bred--normally 825 to 850 pounds at 13 to 15 months of age.
2. Decide when the grower will return heifers to the producer, such as four to six weeks prior to calving, weighing 1,300 to 1,400 pounds.
3. Establish a target weight of 1,250 to 1,350 pounds post calving, with heifers calving at 22 to 24 months of age, says Roger Cady, extension dairy scientist at Puyallup, Wash.
4. Establish a bonus payment if a heifer reaches the desired target weight early. But, include a caveat that prevents the return of fat heifers.

Step 2

Determine your cost per day

Once you’ve established growth guidelines, you need to determine your average cost to raise a heifer per day.

On average, the cost to raise a heifer from birth to calving at 24 months usually falls between $1.50 to $1.60 per day, says Pat Hoffman, dairy scientist at the University of Wisconsin’s Agricultural Research Station in Marshfield, Wis.

Actually, this cost can vary considerably, depending on the weight of the heifers you are raising. For example, raising a heifer from 200 pounds to 300 pounds will cost approximately $1.07 per day. But, it will cost $1.30 per day to raise that same heifer from 500 to 600 pounds.

Although expenses vary from operation to operation, you can use the chart “Cost of rearing heifers” below as a guide when determining the cost per head to raise heifers at various starting weights.

Step 3

Pay based on weight

Instead of specifying one price for raising heifers during the contract period, negotiate the price based on the delivery weight.

Normally, you should expect to adjust the grower’s payment if heifers are delivered at heavier weights, says Edward Fiez, University of Idaho extension dairy specialist. (See “Effects of replacement heifers’ starting weights on feed cost” below.)

The average cost to the grower for the contract period will vary depending on starting weight, Fiez says. Therefore, if the producer and grower establish a base contract price at 450 pounds, and heifers arrive weighing more, you should expect to pay extra. That’s because the average feed cost for a 450 pound heifer raised until calving is $1.03 per day compared to $1.07 for a 550-pound animal.

Therefore, when delivering your heifers, weigh them and adjust the price if necessary. Doing so will provide a better incentive for a grower raising heifers at varying weights.

Reprinted with permission from Dairy Herd Management / February 1998
Written by Kimberlee Bungert