The welfare of dairy heifers during rearing from birth to first calving significantly shapes their lifetime health, productivity and resilience, making early life welfare a long-term investment.
Heifer rearing is often treated as a cost centre in dairy farming rather than a welfare and productivity investment. The evidence that social housing, appropriate nutrition and low-stress handling during rearing produces calmer, more productive and longer-lived cows provides a clear economic argument for welfare investment. Individual hutch rearing may reduce disease transmission but denies social learning and companionship during a critical developmental period. Heifer welfare is intimately linked to adult cow welfare — the management choices made during the 24 months before first calving shape the entire productive life of a dairy animal. Systems that prioritise heifer welfare tend to produce the cows that perform best across all welfare and productivity dimensions.