HEIFERMAX

WHAT IS HEIFERMAX?

HEIFERMAX is an international on-farm advisory service. We assist dairy farmers to improve the management of their heifers from birth to first calving.

The focus of HEIFERMAX services is to maximise the wellbeing of heifers rather than to cure problems once they have occurred.

Promoting excellent heifer management will be of economic advantage to the dairy as a result of:

• reduced veterinary costs per productive heifer entering the dairy;
• more heifers achieving their genetic potential;
• an increased number of heifers available for timely entry into the herd or for sale.

The treatment that heifers receive in this period will significantly affect the financial contribution they are able to make to the farm’s profit when they enter the dairy.

HEIFERMAX will assist the dairy manager by supervising the important aspects of heifer development, thus allowing the manager to concentrate on cow production.
This service is available to dairies within Australia and also in countries with developing dairy industries.

WHO WE ARE

The partners in HEIFERMAX are Jeanette Fisher and Dr. Sam Leadley.

Jeanette Fisher lives in Tasmania, Australia, and she has experience as a:

• dairy heifer specialist
• rearer of 1000 bought-in calves a year (12 week mortality of 1.3%)
• rearer of heifer calves on 2,000 & 1,300 cow dairies
• manager of intensive irrigated and dryland grazing systems
• supervisor of on-farm trials of calf-related products
• veterinary assistant for sheep and goat embryo transfer
• co-manager beef, prime lamb and wool properties
• stockyard designer
• registered nurse
• jillaroo on large beef and sheep properties

She has been awarded:

• a Rural Women’s Leadership Bursary 2001
• the Jack Green Churchill Fellowship 2002
• a DairyTas Small Projects Grant 2007 to run heifer focus groups
• the RIRDC Tasmanian Rural Women’s Award for 2008

In 2003 she travelled to six countries after winning the prestigious Churchill Fellowship. This allowed her to study calf rearing methods and heifer management techniques, focussing particularly on neonatal bovine immunology, natural therapies to reduce antibiotic use, and veal production. She was privileged to work with renowned American heifer management specialist, Dr Sam Leadley, and to learn from many other calf management specialists in the U.S., Canada, Europe and New Zealand. One of the key lessons learned from this experience is that there is no right way to rear calves; the system and solutions must be tailored fit the individual farm’s staffing levels, infrastructure and climate. She has worked with some of Australia’s biggest dairies to improve the standard of their heifer management.

In 2008 she spent 6 weeks in the U.S. attending the Dairy Calf & Heifer Conference in Rochester, Minnesota, as well as consulting on dairies and talking to dairy heifer management specialists in several other states. This was another wonderful opportunity to keep up with the latest industry developments and to gain further experience in all facets of heifer care.

Jeanette is the inaugural and current President of the Professional Calf Rearers’ Association of Australia. She is passionate about improving replacement dairy heifer management and teaches heifer management classes around Australia.
Complementing Jeanette’s wide-ranging practical experience is the world renowned, U.S.-based Dr. Samuel Leadley, Ph.D., P.A.S., who is the calf/heifer management specialist for the Attica Veterinary Associates, Attica, NY, a practice devoted solely to bovine care.

Dr. Leadley consults with dairy farmers and heifer growers with the economic goal of raising healthier, faster-growing animals through better management practices. Working with the veterinary clinic laboratory, he runs a Colostrum Quality Control Program for dairies committed to TQM and HAACP procedures. He also lectures and teaches classes primarily in the Northeast and Midwest. Dr. Leadley is an active member of the Professional Dairy Heifer Growers Association and has made invited presentations at the Western Veterinary Conference, Western Dairy Management Conference, Cornell Nutrition Conference, Cornell Summer Dairy Institute, Dairy Health Certificate Program (Univ. Guelph) and World Dairy Expo.

Dr. Leadley writes Calving Ease, a free monthly newsletter that is distributed internationally and he created and maintains a dairy website for the veterinary clinic, www.atticacows.com, including his “Calf Facts” and “Calf Skills” resource libraries. For 12 years before joining the veterinary practice in 2000, Dr. Leadley managed the calf and heifer enterprise on a 1200-cow dairy in western New York State, and he also has been an on-site manager of on-farm research trials for feed and pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to 1982 Dr. Leadley was on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University and the Extension staff at Cornell University. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell.