Heifer rearing costs in dairy cattle can vary considerably on all units, but there are huge savings to be made when some of the dearest work out at £3000 per head.

Trial work carried out by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and AHDB Dairy have found that heifer rearing costs range from the average of £1800 per head right up to a massive £3000 per heifer. However, dairy farmers can now access an updated, online version of AHDB Dairy’s Heifer Rearing Cost Calculator to work out how much it is costing to rear heifers on their specific farm.

The tool enables farmers to input their own costs for their heifer rearing programme. Alternatively they can use updated, default values to support their own data.

The calculator splits out the rearing period into three key stages; birth to weaning, weaning to conception and conception to calving. Farmers can then input various parameters such as target age at first calving, average heifer first lactation yields, forage growing inputs, forage quality and milk and concentrate use. A cost for each stage and a total cost is then calculated.

Speaking at a recent Calf to Calving (C2C) event AHDB Dairy’s dairy senior scientist Dr Jenny Gibbons said farmers had much to gain from calculating costs for their farm. “Ultimately, the more informed you are, the better business decisions you can make and this calculator enables you to work out your costs, for your heifers, on your system. That means you can focus on specific areas where you can make savings.”

However, she emphasised that any steps to control costs should be taken with caution and weighed up against their potential impact on heifer growth. She said the ultimate aim should be to double birth weight at weaning and target an average daily live weight gain from birth to conception of 800-900g per day. Heifers should be 50% of mature cow body weight by 12 months and calve down at 90% of mature body weight at 24 months.

Achieving these growth rate targets, Dr Gibbons pointed out is reliant on good nutrition and husbandry and achieving such figures can bring significant cost savings. Trials have found that for every day over the age of first calving at 24 months costs £2.87 a head.

Figures also showed that a reduction in average age at first calving from 26 months to 24 months represented a saving of nearly 16% of the total cost of rearing.