Opportunistic Grazing is a term used to maximize forage grazed on marginal land for heifer development. Research work completed in Wisconsin nearly a decade ago and recently published defined the differences between heifers reared on pasture for 6 months annually vs those housed in confinement year-round.
Heifer development is the second most expensive portion of the dairy enterprise, and feed going into your replacements is the easiest metric to change. Simply by rotating the females between pastures every 2-4 days during optimum grazing conditions, this data suggests a return of nearly 2700 lbs milk during her first lactation when compared to the ‘couch potato’ counterpart on TMR.
Listen in today to learn about what observations to expect, how to be responsive and nimble to weather while decreasing cost of production. Additionally, researchers Ken Kalscheur and Carlos Camisa Nova provides a sneak peek at future research being conducted to better understand what is changing in the heifer to improve first lactation performance.
Topics of discussion
1:57 Introduction of Dr. Kalscheur and Carlos Camisa Nova
3:07 Project design/details/background
6:30 How was the pasture measured
7:46 Discussion of supplementation strategies
9:04 TMR composition for 1.8 ADG goal
10:03 Bodyweight difference after first grazing season
12:24 Supplementation strategy to bred heifers, during a drought year
14:59 Feed costs – pasture vs TMR, reduction of 35%
17:21 Repro effect of pasture vs confinement
18:59 First lactation performance of pasture based heifer development
20:02 Impact on Dry matter intake during first lactation
22:23 Follow up project, in progress, to assess possible metabolic differences
25:40 Impact of an activity difference in the two styles of rearing animals
27:57 What do you want ‘boots on the ground’ dairymen to know about your project
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