Biosecurity plays vital role in maintaining heifer health, particularly if producers buy rather than raise replacements
Heifers need special attention if they are to have productive lives in a cow herd.
Whether producers are raising or buying their replacements, they should be aware of heifers’ vaccination, nutrition and post-partum needs, said veterinarian John Campbell, head of the large animal clinical sciences department at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
Campbell teamed with research economist Kathy Larson in a recent webinar about replacement heifers, organized by the Beef Cattle Research Council.
He listed reproductive goals for heifers:
- good reproductive performance every year
- avoid wrecks
- adequate vaccination
- biosecurity
- avoid diseases
- ensure high bull fertility
- minimize calving difficulties
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Campbell made special mention of a good heifer vaccination program.
“That’s the one group that absolutely has to get the modified live pre-breeding vaccine for IBR (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis), BVD (bovine viral diarrhea) and usually a few other things…. In fact they probably should have had that at least twice in their life by the time they get to the pre-breeding stage. They probably should get it at least at weaning and at least as a pre-breeding animal.
“With heifers, there’s no excuse. You’ve got to give them the pre-breeding vaccine…. Try to set them up to protect the fetus.”
Biosecurity is also key to maintaining the health of heifers and the entire herd, particularly if producers buy rather than raise replacements, he added.
“If you are going to buy replacements, you need to know a little bit about where those heifers are coming from, the farm they come from, their vaccination program, their history of infectious disease. You can easily bring diseases like Johne’s disease onto your farm.”
In similar fashion, a purchased heifer carrying a calf with persistent BVD becomes a Trojan horse when it comes to the ranch.
Unfortunately, nature presents obstacles to optimum heifer health and future conception, Campbell added. Even in ideal conditions, there’s only a 60 to 70 percent chance that a calf will be born from a single mating of a healthy heifer and bull.
That percentage could be even lower if the animal has poor body condition or nutritional deficiencies.
Once pregnant, heifers are at higher risk of abortions and calving difficulty.
“I think heifers are kind of a high risk group and lots of disease investigations I go to, the heifers are more severely affected if it’s a reproductive loss problem,” Campbell said.
“They tend to have more reproductive losses, like abortions, stillbirths. They’re the dystocia risk group. They have lower levels of immunity. They’re probably more susceptible to infectious diseases and they’re still growing and they’re lots more susceptible to nutritional challenges.”
Heifers take longer to cycle after their first calf. Campbell said the average is 80 to 100 days and again, it could be longer if nutrition is compromised.
That’s why it’s important to organize breeding so the heifers calve ahead of the rest of the herd. It gives them the chance to cycle at the beginning of the breeding season.
Campbell recommends that heifers be bred 20 to 30 days before mature cows.
“This gives the first-calf heifer a fighting chance to get pregnant in the first 21 days of the breeding season,” Campbell wrote in his slide presentation.
“In order to be cycling as replacements these heifers probably need to be chosen from the early calving cows.”
Research shows heifers that calve in the first 21 days of the calving season will provide one extra calf over their lifetime’s productivity.
