Dairy Dry Cow, Calf and Heifer Development Nutrition Program

The Middle Tennessee State University Farm Laboratories is seeking a vendor to provide a comprehensive dairy dry cow, calf, and heifer development nutrition program. The program should include dry cow mineral supplementation, trace mineral supplementation, vitamin supplementation, and close-up cow feed and feeding rate recommendations. The vendor should also provide a complete calf nutrition program from birth through weaning and a heifer development nutrition program from weaning through first calving. The vendor will be required to provide monthly on-farm visits by a qualified dairy nutritionist and make recommendations for continuous improvement. Some key points to consider are: • The program should maximize calf health and survivability, promote optimal growth and skeletal development of replacement heifers, and achieve age at first calving targets of approximately 22 to 24 months. • The vendor should provide forage sampling and feed analysis recommendations as needed throughout the contract period. • The vendor should review growth, reproductive, and health performance data and make recommendations for continuous improvement. • The vendor should provide written ration formulations and nutritional recommendations whenever adjustments are made.