Dairy webinar on May 17 to focus on heifer maturity

ORANGE CITY — The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Dairy Team monthly webinar series continues Wednesday, May 17, from noon to 1 p.m. This program will focus on how heifer maturity affects the dairy’s finance bottom line.

The basic premise under-girding this presentation is that a mature heifer is an animal that has the phenotypic characteristics (e.g. weight and frame) that will allow the full expression of the animal’s genomic productive ability.

Dr. Gavin Staley will share what he sees is the impact of well-known key factors, such as weight and age at calving, as well as average daily gain (ADG) on production.

Breeding heifers earlier has significant advantages, such as lowering heifer inventory and feeding costs. Not surprisingly, there has been a global trend within the industry to breed heifers earlier. However, the caveat to early heifer breeding is that the growth of these animals needs to be increased to meet the new earlier calving age.

Staley graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa, as a veterinarian in 1984. He has several years experience in the dariy industry and has presented at World Dairy Expo, AABP and various other national and international meetings.

Producers, dairy consultants, and industry reps are encouraged to attend by pre-registering at least one hour before the webinar at: https://go.iastate.edu/JGYLSZ.

For more information contact the ISU Extension and Outreach Dairy Field Specialist in your area: in northwest Iowa, Fred M. Hall, 712-737-4230 or fredhall@iastate.edu; in northeast Iowa, Jennifer Bentley, 563-382-2949 or jbentley@iastate.edu; in east central Iowa, Larry Tranel, 563-583-6496 or tranel@iastate.edu.