During the month of March, I collaborated with Pro-Dairy and the other regional dairy management specialists to host a statewide transition heifer calf program. We had 5 different locations, one of which I hosted in our southwest New York region. We chose to focus on transition calves for this program due to the current dairy replacement heifer inventory being the lowest it has been since 1978 according to the recent USDA Cattle Inventory report. Heifer calves can often get forgotten in the busy swing of things on the farm. We wanted to dedicate time to focus on best management practices since these heifers are farmer's future herd and well worth the management investment. That being said, I wanted to share some of my top takeaways from our workshop for those who were unable to attend.

Inventory

1. Figure out how many heifers you are producing annually and how many you need annually. If you need help calculating this number, there are online calculators or feel free to reach out to me.
2.  When you have more heifers than you need or can raise in your facility, think critically about which animals to cull. Our top recommendations for animals to cull first are ones experiencing disease, recovered from an injury, had a difficult calving, and heifer twins.

Housing

1. Bedded pack space should be greater than or equal to 40 square feet per heifer.
2. Clean and dry bedding is important! Kneel on the bedding for 15 seconds, your pants should not get damp from the bedding. 

Nutrition

1. Calves should be eating 4 pounds a day for three days before they are moved out of their individual hutch.
2. Water is incredibly important. 3 quarts of water should be drunk for every pound of grain consumed. So, at 4 pounds of grain that would be 3 gallons of water minimum that the calf needs to be consuming.

Health

1. Necropsy of dead calves is a useful diagnostic tool to understand the cause of death and prevent it from occurring again in other calves.
2. Using an ultrasound on the calf's lungs at the time of weaning is a useful way to find calves with chronic lung damage and make better culling choices.

While there are many more recommendations I could share from this program, I hope these few tips help you start thinking more critically about your transition heifer calves. With inventory of heifers being low, it is crucial you raise the ones you do have to the best of your ability to maximize their potential in your herd.