Contract rearing heifers has become quite popular with many dairy farmers. The concept is quite simple: Replacement heifers leave a farm and return around 18 months later just ahead of calving.
A contract is agreed with the farm that rears, setting the standards that are required from both parties. This can vary slightly from farm to farm.
Contract rearing
There are a number of challenges facing the dairy sector which could see contract rearing grow further in popularity.
The first of these has been a issue for a long time and it is labour; skilled labour is becoming more and more difficult to find for many farmers.
Moving the heifer does decrease the workload on farm, although much of the heavy lifting when it comes to calves will have been completed.
In most cases, calves do not leave for the contract-rearing farm until after they have been weaned.
But it does decrease the herding time and free up more land for silage production or grazing of the milking cows.
Nitrates
The second area that could see contract rearing become more popular with dairy farmers regards nitrates and banding.
Banding was introduced at the start of the year and saw the organic nitrogen (N) associated with dairy change from a set figure to a figure based on milk production.
For many, this resulted in their overall farm stocking rate increasing and pushed some farms into derogation.
The second part of this issue is around the nitrates derogation which could be reduced from 250kg of organic N/ha to 220kg of organic N/ha.
Although on some farms removing the youngstock might have very little impact on overall stocking, for others it could.
So if farmers are removing the youngstock through contract rearing it is important that cow numbers are not increased with the freed up land.