A Practitioner Approach to Consulting and Monitoring a Dairy Heifer Replacement Operation

Abstract

This paper is a review of this practitioner's approach to consulting and monitoring dairy heifer replacement programs. It begins by covering key areas of veterinary involvement such as vaccinology, reproduction, health management, and monitoring as it encompasses the life cycle of a custom-raised heifer. Within each of these areas, examples are provided to show how data is collected, analyzed, and reported. The goal of this article is to provide practitioners new to replacement heifer operations a baseline for which to build their own consulting business.