Feed requirements for grazing dairy heifers (3-21)
This Farmfact provides dry matter requirements for fully weaned grazing heifers based on the
maintenance requirement for their current liveweight, plus a range of growth rates.
Target liveweights for dairy heifers and corresponding growth rates are given in Farmfact 3-22.
Table 1 Dry Matter (DM) requirements for Grazing Heifers (kg DM/head/day)
This table assumes heifers are grazing pasture or crop at 11 MJME/kg DM.
Current
liveweight
Dry Matter Requirements for Grazing Heifers (kg DM/head/day)
Requirement for rates of daily liveweight gain (kg/day)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0*
100 kg
2.2
2.7
3.3
3.9
4.4
150 kg
2.9
3.5
4.2
5.2
6.0
200 kg
3.6
4.4
5.1
6.0
6.8
250 kg
4.2
5.1
6.1
7.0
7.9
300 kg
4.9
5.9
6.9
7.9
9.0
350 kg
5.4
6.5
7.6
8.7
9.9
400 kg
5.9
7.1
8.3
9.4
10.6
450 kg
6.4
7.6
8.8
10
11.2
500 kg
6.9
8.1
9.3
10.5
11.7
* 1 kg Lwt gain/head/day may not be achievable at 11MJME pasture as it exceeds likely dry
matter intake as a percentage of body weight.
Heifers in late pregnancy will need extra feed to support their growing calf.
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6th month of pregnancy add 0.5 kg DM/day
7th month of pregnancy add 1.0 kg DM/day
8th month of pregnancy add 2.0 kg DM/day
9th month of pregnancy add 3.0 kg DM/day
Calculating Energy Requirements (MJME)
The energy requirements for growth, increases with increasing heifer weight. Therefore heifers
become less efficient at using energy for growth as they get heavier. Protein is also important
for calf growth but for fully weaned heifers, protein intake is usually sufficient on a pasturebased diet.
Updated April 2015
Farmfact 3-21
Updated April 2015
Page 2 of 2
Table 2 Metabolisable Energy (ME) requirements for Grazing Heifers (kg
DM/head/day)
Heifer
Liveweight
MJME/head/day feed requirements for weight
Growth rate
1kg/day liveweight gain
Maintenance
100
18.5
200
31.2
300
Total
48.9
4.4
43.5
74.7
6.8
42.3
56.6
98.9
9.0
400
52.5
64.0
116.5
10.6
500
62.1
67.1
129.2
11.7
600
70.7
68.4
139.1
12.6
+
30.4
Kg dry matter
@ 11 MJME
=
Source: Nicol & Brookes 2007
Planning and Monitoring Dry Matter Intake
Predicting the dry matter intake of dairy heifers is an important part of heifer rearing
programmes, but is challenging to estimate. Below are a number of considerations for planning
and monitoring feed requirements:
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Maintaining target growth rates over time requires increasing the amount of feed offered
to meet the increasing demand. Both maintenance and growth requirements increase
with liveweight gain.
Feed requirements should be budgeted on the weight of the average heifer in a mob, not
the lightest heifer so not to underestimate total demand.
Heifer dry matter intake as a percent of liveweight decreases as liveweight increases,
but the relationship is not a straight line.
Young heifers are highly selective, harvesting the highest quality pasture. The selective
grazing patterns of recently weaned heifers make it very hard to assess their pasture
intake.
Good subdivision and ‘clean up’ mobs may be strategies for managing utilisation while
offering recently weaned heifers clean leafy pasture for high growth rates. From six
months old heifers have learnt to graze more quickly and less selectively.
Increasing feed intakes will not make up for low quality feed (low MJME/ kgDM). Just
because heifers may not be complaining and are full does not mean they are growing at
target growth rates.
Regular weighing is the best way to measure heifer growth and make decisions on
adjusting feed requirements. Target growth rate is the daily weight gain required to reach
a weight for age target e.g. 60% of mature weight at 15 months.
This Farmfact does not include a feed wastage factor in the tables. Factors influencing
untilisation include feed quality, weather, heifer age and farm system.
Updated April 2015
©DairyNZ 2015