In this podcast, SAC Consulting’s dairy specialist Lorna MacPherson speaks to SRUC’s dairy farms manager Sven Koops about their heifer rearing enterprise at Crichton Royal Farm. There have been a lot of changes made to the way heifers have been reared and one of the biggest changes has been moving from a housed TMR system to a pasture based system. Heifers are now grazed from a very young age, with the aim of maximising the use of grass and outwintering during the rearing period to help reduce costs. The challenges of grazing heifers and keeping them on track to achieve target weights at service and calving are discussed.

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