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Heifer Rearing Solutions
Saving 1p/Litre on Production Costs
Improved heifer rearing systems can reduce milk production costs by 1p/litre and bring over £18.5million additional profit to the Northern Ireland dairy farmer. A project to highlight how this can be done on Northern Ireland farms has been set up by John Thompson & Sons Ltd who are
liasing with DARD staff at Greenmount Campus and the Agricultural Research Institute at Hillsborough to transfer the results of recent research to Northern Ireland farms.
Research has shown that a number of simple practical steps such as measuring the girth and height of heifers on a regular basis can achieve the savings mentioned. This research has indicated that properly grown (good body frame but not fat) heifers when calved at 23 -25 months of age have a greater lifetime yield, and better subsequent fertility, than larger heifers.
John Thompson & Sons Ltd has put together a ‘blueprint’ heifer-rearing programme, which includes a
Thompson's technical representative working with the farmer to provide supporting advice, based on monitoring the growth rate of heifers against pre-set targets.
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