Last May, the Irish Farmers Journal reported that the number of dairy replacement heifer calves on the ground was back 12% compared to 2024 and back 15% compared to 2023. At the time, the data showed that at a national level there would be insufficient heifers calving down for the first time in 2027 to replace all the cows likely to be leaving the national herd at that time.

The latest data from the ICBF shows that dairy farmers responded to this news by using 14% more dairy AI and 26% more sexed semen in the 2025 breeding season. This is a good response, given that no farmer wants to be short of stock, especially with the heightened risk of TB, bluetongue and other concerns.

Costs

Heifer purchase costs shot up in spring 2025 on the back of increased demand due to TB, booming export trade, good weather and good milk prices, along with a reduced supply of heifers for sale. To put it in context, if in-calf or calved heifers made €1,500/head in spring 2024, they were making over €2,500/head in 2025.

On the face of it this looks like great money, but further analysis highlights that heifers were undervalued to begin with, relative to the costs of rearing them. Table 1 examines the costs for a dairy farmer to bring a heifer to the point of calving.

The headline figure of €1,722 to rear a heifer includes all costs associated with the rearing process, but excludes the opportunity cost of selling the heifer as a calf. However, the opportunity cost of using dairy semen instead of beef semen is included. For the purposes of this exercise, we are estimating that a three-week-old Friesian bull calf is worth €100 less than a beef bred calf and as there is a 50% chance of getting a male, there is an opportunity cost of €50 included.

A conventional dairy AI straw is also around €12 more expensive than a beef AI straw so this cost is included also. The other breeding related costs are based on getting the heifer in-calf. Based on a full synchronisation programme plus technician AI service and the cost of the straw, the direct cost of getting a heifer inseminated is €71/head. If sexed semen was used this would be €96/head. Using scratch cards or tail paint to observe heifers instead of using fixed time AI would be cheaper.

It is presumed that one round of AI is completed, with repeats picked up by a stock bull. Bull costs will vary but the presumption here is that a beef stock bull is purchased for €3,000. Based on an expected sale price after three years of €1,800/head the net cost of the bull is €1,200.

Presuming the bull lasts for three years and there is one bull per 20 heifers, then the annual cost per heifer of purchasing a bull is €20/head. That doesn’t include the cost of feeding the bull, which works out at about €922 annually when you value what grass and silage he eats. Across 20 heifers, that’s an annual cost of €46/head.

Feed costs

Based on the latest Teagasc feed costs, grass and clover costs €85/t DM, while grass silage costs €230/t DM. These costs include a land charge and all associated costs such as fertiliser, reseeding, etc.

Based on expected monthly liveweights and presuming heifers eat 2.5% of their liveweight daily, we can estimate how much grass and how much silage they will eat over their first two years. In their first summer from May to the end of October, the analysis shows they eat 740kg of grass which at the Teagasc costs would cost €72 per head after taking account of utilisation losses.

Over the first winter, November to January, it’s estimated they will eat 565kg of silage which costs €152/head. The second summer the animals are bigger and eat more, with a total of almost 2.5t DM estimated to be eaten – which costs €240/head. During the second winter they will eat just over 1t DM of silage, costing €293/head.

The costs for milk replacer and meal during the first year are all included in Table 1, along with an estimated cost for straw for bedding as calves.

Vet costs

Individually, each veterinary cost item is small but together they mount up to be a substantial cost at €82/head. The presumption is made that the heifers are dosed for worms, coccidiosis and fluke, and are vaccinated against blackleg, pneumonia and IBR. Additional vaccines could be included such as salmonella, which requires two shots for heifers. Other costs such as TB tests, minerals, dehorning and freeze branding are included here also.

Fixed costs

It’s hard to work out the exact fixed costs involved in rearing replacement heifers, so for most fixed costs I have assigned a proportion of total farm costs to the heifer-rearing enterprise. Total costs are based on the 2024 Teagasc Profit Monitor and for depreciation, repairs and maintenance, machinery running costs and other fixed costs, such as insurance, water and electricity, 20% of the total costs have been included.

Again, each of these figures can be debated, but at the end of the day there is a cost to keeping replacements which can’t be ignored.

Labour costs are included at a rate of €336/head. This is based on working out the labour requirements of rearing replacement heifers. This is quite subjective and will vary a lot between farms.

For the purposes of this exercise, it is presumed that there are 40 heifers being reared in a batch and labour costs are €16 per hour. The number of hours worked per day varies with the seasons, with two hours per day presumed during the first three months of life and one hour per day thereafter, with the exception of May in the second year when two hours per day is presumed during the breeding season.

Using this approach, a total of 840 hours are worked over the two years of the rearing period.

To be clear, in say the month of August there is one hour per day assigned to the calves and one hour per day assigned to the in-calf heifers.

Multiplying the total of 840 hours across a nominal amount of 40 heifers means that there are 21 hours worked per heifer and at a cost of €16/hour, this gives us a labour cost of €336 per heifer. These costs can be debated up and down, but everyone will agree that rearing heifers takes time and I will argue that there is an opportunity cost to that time, so it needs to be factored in.

The cost of mortality has not been included but is worth considering. Typically, you would see a 3% mortality rate within the first month of life and perhaps a 1% mortality rate between weaning and calving down. By right, the costs incurred in rearing an animal that subsequently dies or is not in-calf should be included in the rearing costs of all the other animals.

Contract rearing

It’s important to note that the costs in this analysis are not the same as the costs of contract rearing. Taking the cost of grass between May and October in year one, the cost of silage in the first winter and the cost of grass between February and October in year two works out at €464/head.

Based on my calculations there would be 570 hours worked over this 540-day period and at a cost of €16/hour that works out at €9,120. If 40 heifers are reared, that’s a labour cost of €228/head. All of the other fixed costs come to €111/heifer, which in this example is probably overestimated as the figures in Table 1 are based on two winters.

However, if just looking at the costs of grass and silage plus all fixed costs, then contract rearing weaned calves and returning them in-calf in November works out at €803/head.

Over a 540-day period, this works out at €1.49/head/day. This doesn’t include any vet, meal or breeding costs.

Teagasc has recently published a revised contract-rearing information document and has an excel file available to work out costs based on different rearing agreements.

Comment

Based on this analysis, the total cost of rearing a replacement heifer is €1,722 per head. It’s important to note that the size of the batch has a big bearing on some of the costs, such as bull costs and labour costs. For example, the labour input in rearing 20 versus 40 heifers is not that different, but in this analysis it can change the costs by up to €336/head, so keep that in mind when assessing the costs.

The other point to note is around feed costs. A grass and clover sward growing 13t DM/ha is assumed in this analysis, but that’s not often the case on heifer rearing ground. If grass yield reduced to 11t DM/ha, then the costs of grass go up by about 20%. Maximum efficiency is presumed. In other words, the stocking rate is perfect for the number of heifers being reared, which is never really the case.

Ultimately, the analysis shows that rearing replacements is not cheap. Farmers rearing heifers with the intention to sell them should also be including the opportunity cost of selling them as calves. If so, that could add about €600/head on to the costs meaning the net cost of rearing a heifer to two years of age is more like €2,322/head.