A decision support tool for the feeding and management of dairy replacement heifers

Dairy replacement heifers are often a neglected enterprise, yet they are the future milking cows of the herd. Management decisions concerning dairy replacement heifers can have a major effect on the profitability of the whole farm. To make better decisions, dairy managers need to determine the differences between animal requirements and feed available. There are decision support tools available for the dairy manager to help in decision making but these mainly deal solely with the dairy cow. Those that allow management options for heifer growth to be investigated are mainly tactical and assess the range of feeds on offer, their nutritive value and amount fed. This paper introduces a new decision support tool called Higro. It uses the same approach as other decision support tools, relating feed required to feed available, but is designed to help in more strategic long-term decisions. Higro also allows the user to divide the feeding and management of dairy replacement heifers into three distinct stages from weaning to first calving. This new tool compliments NSW Agriculture’s adult learning material on dairy management — DairyLink. Three case studies are presented to illustrate how this new tool can be utilised.