A guide to heifer rearing

A heifer is a young female bovine that has not yet calved, and she is the future of your herd. Rearing a heifer properly is the foundation of ending up with a high-yielding, long-lived cow. Rearing her badly means a late or troubled first calving and low yield for life.

A heifer is the quietest cost item in the barn. She gives no milk, she gives no calf, but she eats every day. So heifer rearing has two sides: turning the animal into a sound, well-grown cow on the one hand, and doing that within an economical period rather than dragging it out on the other. Below we set out, in steps you can follow on the farm, what to look at in each period.

1. The aim: steady, balanced growth

The aim is to grow the heifer so that she gains weight steadily, neither running her too fat nor leaving her thin. Overfeeding can cause fat to be laid down in the udder tissue and lead to low milk yield later; underfeeding delays growth.

In practice the target is a steady gain in body weight of about 700–800 grams a day from weaning to insemination. That comes to about 21–24 kg a month. The key word here is "steady": a heifer who loses condition in winter and recovers quickly on spring pasture may hit the average on paper, but she will not be in the same place in terms of skeletal and udder development. Growth that goes up and down spoils the heifer's condition and makes the time to inseminate harder to predict.

Follow growth by measuring, not by eye. If you have no weighbridge, a heart girth tape (a cattle weigh tape) is a good approximation; it is cheap, one person can use it, and it is enough to see the difference between months. Having the same person take the measurement the same way each time, and if possible before the morning feed, is what makes the results comparable.

Alongside weight, look at wither (shoulder) height as well. A good heifer does not only gain weight, she also grows in height. A heifer whose weight is on target but whose height lags behind is usually running fat; one who is growing tall while her weight lags behind is being underfed.

2. Insemination: look at weight, not age

A heifer is inseminated according to her weight and development rather than her calendar age. The common recommendation is to inseminate her when she reaches about 55–65% of her mature adult weight; that proportion varies with breed and with the source. Varying by breed as it does, this most often corresponds to an age of ~13–15 months.

It would not be right to give a single figure for the body weight that corresponds to this: the target weight varies markedly by breed (native, crossbred, Holstein and so on). Get the opinion of a veterinarian or an animal nutritionist for the weight and age that suit your herd.

The soundest way of working out the target weight for your own herd is this: know the average weight of your own mature cows, and take the insemination target as roughly 60% of it. Applying another farm's Holstein figure straight to your crossbred herd would be misleading.

Once the weight is right, the job of inseminating is not over; you also need to catch the heat correctly. The signs of heat can be brief and are easily missed. At least twice a day, preferably early in the morning and in the cool of the evening, check for heat by simply watching for a few minutes: standing to be mounted, restlessness, bellowing, soiling at the tail head and discharge. Note every heat you see with its date; the distance between two heats (in most cattle an average of 21 days, in the range 18–24 days) lets you know the next opportunity in advance. For detail you can look at our insemination timing article.

Before insemination the animal's development of the birth canal also matters. In a heifer whose weight is right but who is very young and narrow, the risk of a difficult calving rises. So alongside the weight target a minimum age should be observed as well, which means avoiding haste such as "she has made weight early, let us inseminate her at 10 months". For heifers, choosing bulls with calving ease to the fore rather than bulls that sire big calves is common practice; decide the choice of bull together with your inseminator and your veterinarian.

3. First calving at ~24 months

If insemination is done at 14–15 months, then with a gestation of about 9 months (280–285 days on average) the first calving falls at 23–24 months. This is considered ideal for most farms: calving very late (30+ months, for instance) means feeding the heifer for nothing and raises costs; calving very early or very small can lead to difficult calving and problems with development.

It is easy to see what this means in arithmetic: a farm that lets the first calving slip from 24 months to 30 spends feed, water, housing and labour for six months on every heifer and gets no milk in return. On a farm with ten heifers, that seriously upsets the year's plan. The reverse is also true: inseminating a heifer that has not reached the target weight just because "she is old enough" brings difficult calving, low first-lactation yield and the risk of early culling. The right answer is not to hurry but to bring the heifer up to the target weight on time.

4. What to do in each period

The table below summarises roughly the road from weaning to first calving. The ages can shift with breed and farm conditions; update the table with your own herd's figures.

Period	Approximate age	Priority	What to look at
After weaning	3–6 months	Development of the rumen, the move to forage	Appetite, manure consistency, coughing
Growth	6–12 months	Steady gain in weight and height	Monthly weighing or tape measurement, signs of parasites
Before insemination	12–14 months	Reaching the target weight without running fat	Weight, condition, heat records
Insemination	~13–15 months	Inseminating at the right time, a calving-ease bull	Heat date, insemination date
Pregnancy	After insemination	Confirming the pregnancy, balanced feeding	Pregnancy examination, a return to heat
The final period before calving	The last ~2 months	Preparation for calving, a clean pen	Filling of the udder, condition, restlessness

5. Feeding

After weaning the heifer is grown on a balanced ration based mainly on good quality forage. Protein and energy suited to the growing period are given; but running her too fat on excess concentrate is avoided. Free access to clean water is essential.

A few practical points that work on the farm:

• The quality of the forage matters more than the quantity. It is hard to bring a heifer up to target on hay cut late and gone to stem; the animal fills her belly but does not develop.
• Separate the age groups. If small heifers are fed at the same trough as big ones, the animal that needs it most eats the least. If you can, make two groups: 6–12 months and over 12 months.
• Make sure there is enough trough space. If there is not enough trough for every animal to get her head in at the same time, the heifers lower down the order fall behind.
• Water is the forgotten feed. Especially in the summer months, a stagnant, dirty or distant drinker directly lowers feed intake. Check the drinker every day, and in winter watch for freezing.
• Do not lose sight of heifers grown at pasture. On many farms in Turkiye the heifers stay out at pasture all summer. Pasture quality falls markedly from spring to summer; you will only notice that the heifers coming off the pasture in August and September have fallen behind if you measure them. Feed them additionally at pasture if you need to.
• In the summer heat animals eat little during the day. Providing shade and moving feeding to early morning and the cool of the evening stops growth from stalling in the summer months.

If you want to build the ration around your own feed sources, our ration calculation article shows the way; for exact proportions, work with a veterinarian or an animal nutritionist.

6. Health and vaccination

Heifers must be included in the herd's vaccination calendar (foot-and-mouth disease, brucellosis and so on) and in the parasite control programme. Brucellosis vaccination in particular is given to female calves within a certain age range, which is why following their age matters.

In Turkiye, vaccination against diseases such as foot-and-mouth and brucellosis proceeds through official campaigns run nationwide, and campaign periods and the age ranges to be covered can change with the year and the region. So look at your own province's programme rather than at a general list on the internet: contact your provincial or district directorate of agriculture and forestry and your veterinarian for the current and binding programme. In the same way, the conditions for tagging, registration and support applications are subject to official legislation; having the animal's tag and registration complete is both a legal requirement and something that makes sale, breeding certification and support business easier later on. We touched on how vaccinations are planned across the herd in our cattle vaccination calendar article.

Apart from vaccination, the three matters that cause the most trouble in the heifer period are these:

• Internal and external parasites. Especially in heifers grazing at pasture, the parasite burden is one of the common reasons an animal eats yet does not gain weight. The programme and its application are entirely your veterinarian's decision.
• Respiratory problems. Heifers grown in badly ventilated, ammonia-smelling, crowded pens get coughs and pneumonia, and that sets growth back by months.
• Feet and hooves. Hoof problems begin in a heifer standing constantly on a wet, dung-covered floor. A lame heifer does not go to the trough, and if she does not go she cannot gain weight.

7. Common mistakes and how to spot them

• The "a heifer grows by herself anyway" approach. The sign: the heifers stand in the back pen of the barn, on the worst feed, with the least frequent checks. The result is a first calving delayed by months, with every passing month written down as cost.
• Deciding by eye alone. The sign: saying "this one looks good, let us inseminate her" and meeting a difficult calving or a low first lactation months later. The remedy is simple: measure once a month.
• Too much concentrate before insemination. The sign: heifers with fat over the back and tail head, round in the belly but shorter than their contemporaries; heats becoming indistinct and difficulty conceiving.
• "Getting by" on inadequate forage. The sign: a dull coat, a hollow belly, and next to no gain at the monthly measurement.
• Letting heat observation slide. The sign: the heifer has reached the target weight but months pass with people saying "she just never showed heat". Most of the time the animal did show heat and nobody saw it.
• Skipping the pregnancy examination. The sign: heifers found still empty months after insemination. Watch for a return to heat after insemination and have a pregnancy check done at the time your veterinarian thinks appropriate. We touched on the subject in our pregnancy signs and tracking article.
• Going into calving unprepared. The sign: a heifer calving for the first time doing so in a crowded pen on a dung-covered floor. First calvings need more supervision; prepare a clean, dry, separate pen. For the importance of the first hours after calving, see our calf care: the first 30 days article.

8. Which signs call for a veterinarian

The following will not wait; delay loses you both the animal and money:

• A heifer that has not gained weight for months although she is eating, with a dull coat and a hollow belly.
• A constant cough, nasal discharge, fast and laboured breathing, drooping ears.
• Loss of appetite, a feverish and dull appearance, standing apart from the herd.
• Diarrhoea that does not clear, or blood in the manure.
• Lameness, a swollen joint, inability to put weight on a foot.
• A heifer that has shown no heat for months although she has reached the target weight.
• A heifer that does not conceive although inseminations have been repeated.
• Abnormal discharge, foul-smelling discharge or a suspected abortion. In the case of an abortion do not touch the animal with bare hands; report the situation without losing time to a veterinarian and to the relevant directorate, because of diseases such as brucellosis that can also pass to people.
• If calving has started but is not progressing; do not wait, particularly in heifers calving for the first time.

9. Weighing and record keeping

Without knowing whether a heifer has reached the target weight, you cannot catch the right time to inseminate. Recording the date of birth, the interim weighings and the vaccinations makes clear which heifer is ready to inseminate and whose vaccination is due.

Where records pay off is not overstated but very concrete:

• If the date of birth is written down, you do not argue about the animal's real age; the time for vaccination and insemination becomes clear by itself.
• If interim measurements are written down, you see that the heifer is falling behind before she misses the target. Making it up afterwards is always more expensive.
• If heat dates are written down, you can wait for the next heat and not call the inseminator out for nothing.
• If the insemination date is written down, the pregnancy examination and the expected calving date can be worked out, and you get the calving pen ready in time.
• At the end of the year you can answer the question "at how many months did my heifers calve on average?" That single figure shows whether your heifer management is going well or badly.

You can keep the records in a notebook too; what matters is that it is regular. We described how to start in our how to keep herd records article.

A short checklist

• Is every heifer's date of birth and ear tag number recorded?
• Is a measurement (weighbridge or tape) taken once a month?
• Are the heifers in separate pens by age and size group?
• Is the forage quality right for a heifer, and is the concentrate not being overdone?
• Is there free access to clean water, and is the drinker checked daily?
• Is a heat check made and noted at least twice a day?
• Has the target weight been set from your own herd's mature cows?
• Have the vaccination and parasite programme been discussed with the veterinarian, and the campaign period confirmed with the provincial directorate?
• Has a pregnancy check after insemination been planned?
• Is a clean, dry calving pen ready for the last two months?

Follow your heifers with Alprivo

Record heifers' dates of birth, weighings and vaccinations in Alprivo Herd Management, and let the age to inseminate and the time to vaccinate arrive as automatic reminders.