Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Cell Wall Biology and Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #340067
Title: Invited review: 100 years of dairy heifer research

Author
item HEINRICHS, ARLYN - Pennsylvania State University
item JONES, COLEEN - Pennsylvania State University
item LASCANO, GUSTAVO - Clemson University
item Zanton, Geoffrey

Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/4/2017
Publication Date: 11/16/2017
Citation: Heinrichs, A.J., Jones, C.M., Lascano, G.J., Zanton, G.I. 2017. Invited review: 100 years of dairy heifer research. Journal of Dairy Science. 100: 10173-10188.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Raising the dairy heifer from birth through first parturition requires a significant investment of resources without realizing revenue from this investment until after this period concludes. Research directed at an improved understanding of the physiology, nutrition, and management of the dairy heifer has contributed to optimizing the heifer rearing program for future productivity and improved overall dairy farm sustainability. Even in the earliest literature on the growing dairy heifer, researchers identified rearing costs and the implications of growth on future productivity as major concepts to be studied to improve the overall sustainability of the dairy herd. In general, the nutrition and management changes made in the dairy heifer have been tremendous in the past 100 years. Farms have been more progressive in adopting practices and responsive to the physiology and nutrient needs of the heifer, as well as key economic strategies to be successful. Research published in the Journal of Dairy Science has clearly played a tremendous part in the progress of dairy heifer programs around the world.