It is a balancing act when it comes to feeding protein. Dairy cows do not have a requirement for crude protein – instead, they require amino acids, the building blocks of protein. The main sources of amino acids are:

Raising replacement animals is a key segment of many dairy operations. Not only does it represent a significant cost, but it also demands an important investment in time and dedication to raise highly performing heifers.

Canada’s dairy industry has made great progress in access and usage of data available on-farm in the past years. Information on milk, specifically data on milk component and urea analysis at each delivery, can improve our knowledge of the feed efficiency of our herds and dramatically speed up the response time to a change.

Precision dairy technologies are advancing at an exponential rate. These technologies are allowing us to track and monitor an individual cow’s activity, rumination, production and even location in a pen on a daily (or even hourly) basis. But with these advancements in individual cow monitoring, we sometimes forget that these individual cows do not function independently of one another in a herd. A cow is affected by how well she can access the resources she needs in a herd, both in a tiestall and a freestall environment.

A heifer’s life can be divided into four main periods: newborn and colostrum; pre-weaning; post-weaning; and growing, puberty and pregnancy. Using key benchmarks and well-established protocols during these periods allow producers to find opportunities in replacement programs and allow them to concentrate on changes that will impact profitability.

Heat stress reduces on-farm profits. Short-term impacts of heat stress can be easily measured by tracking milk shipments during and after a bout of excessive heat. During these periods, milk losses can reach up to 10 to 20 percent.