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A University of Wisconsin project exploring the cost to raise heifers on Wisconsin farms pegged the average total cost to raise a calf to weaning in 2015 at $374 on average or $5.51 per day. That didn’t include the $400 value of the calf.
The average cost in 2015 of raising a heifer from weaning to freshening – or returned to a dairy by a custom grower – was $1,736 per head, or $2.77 per head per day, which was 10 percent lower compared to 2013.
The cost of raising dairy heifers amounts to 20 percent of total costs, on average, on Wisconsin dairy farms – and is the second-highest dairy-farm expenditure after the cost of feeding the milking herd.
Matt Akins
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A University of Wisconsin project exploring the cost to raise heifers on Wisconsin farms pegged the average total cost to raise a calf to weaning in 2015 at $374 on average or $5.51 per day. That didn’t include the $400 value of the calf.
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