HEIFERMAX

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are accepted management tools in many industries. Quality control programmes such as ISO 9000 and HACCP rely on them to give consistent results, leading to uniformity of the end product or result.

The trend to single enterprise dairies milking large herds of cows and employing labour to do this has lead to problems not encountered on the multi-enterprise, family run farms of the past. Here one family member did the same job and knew exactly how it was done and what the expected outcomes were, therefore the results were consistent. Modern dairies need to have procedures in place to ensure consistent results, even though multiple staff members may be involved in a particular task. 

The most economic end product of heifer rearing is a well grown, healthy heifer, ready to calve at ≈ 24 months, capable of milking to her genetic potential and of remaining in the herd for several years. While there are many ways of achieving this result, it can be useful to standardise methods on individual farms, so that everyone involved knows how specific tasks are performed. This is particularly important on farms which have various people caring for heifers and conversely, for farms where one particular person cares for calves. Single calf carer farms tend to have consistent results when that staff member is working but if they are absent, results often deteriorate, so the SOPs are useful for stand in staff members.

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