Erick Molt Susan Allyn English 1050 22 November 2016 Dairy Calf and Heifer Raising Dairy farming is an important part of agriculture throughout the world. The most productive dairy farms are found right here in the United States. There are many aspects to dairy farming, and the most important to most is the milk cows and their production. This may be true in the present times but in the future we need new cows to replace the old ones. This can only be done by taking the best care of the newborn baby calves and heifers. This all starts with breeding the cows, most commonly by the practice of Artificial Insemination, when the cow is in heat. Most producers keep careful records of each cow so they can A.I. her at the right time. This is a crucial part of getting a good pregnancy success rate. Then after gestation, when she has her calf, the calf needs to have its naval dipped with iodine to prevent infections. This needs to be done within a hour after birth. Within two hours after birth the calf needs to be fed 3 to 4 quarts of high quality colostrum to give the immune system a jump start. This will give the calf a much better chance of becoming a healthy productive cow in the future. At this time the calf is tagged with a number for identification purposes and recorded into the computer for records. …show more content…
But now we have a heifer that is ready to enter milk production. This is an exciting yet stressful time for both the producer and the heifer herself. The farmer has waited two years for her to enter production and when she does they have confidence that they have raised a healthy and productive cow through genetics and feeding. She should be giving around 80 to 85 pounds of milk each day for her first lactation, much higher than milk cows used to give back before research was done into the genetics and feed quality of raising a good quality milk