Two years – it sounds like a lot of time. But when it comes to raising heifers, two years is a small window of opportunity to do all the little things right. In this roundtable, four calf and heifer raisers share their approaches to nutrition, disease management, reproduction, genetics and labor. They also provide insights on the lessons that have shaped their programs, from colostrum to calving, for supporting overall calf and heifer wellness.

Dehorning cattle has become a standard practice in modern dairy operations to prevent injury to humans and animals alike. Dehorning is one of the sometimes unpleasant tasks that must be performed on the average dairy farm. But what if you could eliminate this task simply by choosing the “right” bull? Selecting genetically hornless or “polled” sires will allow you to incorporate the polled trait into your herd and permanently eliminate dehorning from your to-do list.

Genetics has historically played a minor role in day-to-day herd management when compared to nutrition, udder health and reproduction. Genetic progress for most dairies consisted of selecting A.I. sires that might improve the herd’s main deficiencies, like production, feet and legs or udder composite.

On the dairy, the ability to get cows pregnant is the pivot point of profitability. Herds with sound reproduction programs are able to capture opportunities for milk production and genetic progress, while those that struggle to get cows bred back in a timely manner face the costly consequences of longer days open, increased breeding and replacement costs, and risk of reproduction-related culling.

The Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council (DCRC) annual meeting was held in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Nov. 7 and 8, 2013. The day-and-a-half event was intense with presentations and a sponsors’ trade show, but the outcome was a variety of topics and good discussion among university and industry people of what is new in research regarding improvements in reproductive performance and in overall dairy management.

In every dairy producer’s ideal world, the norm would be a whole herd of cows that efficiently produces high volumes of milk during several lactations with no transition problems, metabolic diseases, udder health issues or conformation faults leading to an early cull from the herd. In other words, the ideal is a whole herd of “four-event” cows, whose only recorded events throughout a lactation are freshening, a single breeding, pregnancy diagnosis and dry-off.

Advancing Dairy Cattle Genetics: Genomics and Beyond is the theme for an upcoming conference that will address the future of genetic selection, research and application. The three-day event will be held Feb. 17-19 in Phoenix, Arizona. Leading scientists, industry experts and dairy producers are on the agenda as speakers and panelists.

Everyone in the dairy industry is breathing a collective sigh of relief. The drought-induced feed prices are ending, and new-crop corn and beans are flowing to the dairies at substantially lower prices. However, feed costs will still be double what they were just a few years ago, while milk prices are only up 30 percent. Margins will continue to be tight, and management must find every opportunity to maximize performance in order to increase margins and profits. One of the key elements to profitability on the dairy is reproduction.

In 1920, the world began changing faster than ever before. We had just left the horse and buggy for the car, and we were starting to use machines for heavy lifting, moving dirt and building skyscrapers. Research was starting to speed up as well, and with that research came the discovery of how to use oil. We also discovered that we could make many different things from oil that would make our lives easier, faster, more efficient or less expensive. New information was the sign of the times.