First thing — don’t just chuck the heifers in with the big girls on a Monday morning and hope for the best. That’s a fast road to chaos in the yard.

A few golden rules I go by:

1. Let ’em meet the neighbours first
   Stick the heifers in the paddock beside the main herd for a week or so. They get the smell and sight of each other, and the old girls get over the novelty before they share a feed face.
2. Milk-parlour training
   Walk the heifers through the parlour a couple of times before they’re due to calve. Let them sniff around, hear the noise, maybe even run the cups on a dry teat just so they’re not spooked. Makes life a lot easier on day one.
3. Small introductions
   If you can, add them to the herd in small batches. Less bullying, and the pecking order sorts itself out quicker.
4. Feed space is king
   Make sure there’s plenty of feed space so they don’t get shouldered out. A hungry heifer won’t milk well.
5. Watch them like a hawk
   First couple of weeks, keep an eye for sore teats, shy feeders, or anyone getting shoved around. Step in early if one’s struggling.
6. Keep it calm
   No roaring, no banging gates — they’re nervous enough. A bit of patience at the start saves headaches all season.

Run the heifers through the yard and parlour before calving so nothing’s new to them.

Mix ’em with the herd on neutral ground to avoid scraps.

Keep fresh calvers together for a bit, watch for the quiet bullies at the trough, and stick to a steady routine.

Do that and you won’t be chasing them round the yard in the dark.

regarding this: 

How early do you start training your heifers for the parlour, and do you run them in with the herd before or after calving?

We start about 6 weeks before calving. Since we are seasonal calvers it means majority of the herd are dry so milking herd size is small with a lot more free robot time and space for the heifers to be trained. Adding the heifers to the herd in batches so there is not to many to push through robots at a time. You can put the heifers on horizon a a group on “training mode” which means the robot will feed them and make heaps of noises, move arm around without actually touching the heifer. We find the grazeways are the hardest thing for them to get used to so for the first couple of times through the yards we turn the air off so the ram gate stays open. After being through yards they do go with the herd but you’ll find for while they won’t come back through on their own so have to been fetched and also means they will spend most of the time in one grazing section instead of moving with the herd through ABC 

Leave them in herd for at least two weeks. We normally leave them in until they are ready to be drafted straight into springer/calving paddock