Should you keep records? Sure…if you’re going to use them.
“If you’re going to make changes in your operation, and hopefully improve it, then you’ve got to know where you’re at to start with, to help you more or less develop a game plan for moving on in that more positive direction,” Eldon Cole, University of Missouri Extension regional livestock specialist, told Ozarks Farm and Neighbor.
“Something a lot of people are talking about now is how long to keep cows in the herd and if you’re not keeping any records, a lot of people really don’t know whether they kept a cow too long in the herd or whether they should go on a different route. If you keep track of why you cull cows, this will help you on down the road in making those determinations.”
Producers can also keep individual performance records; knowing what calves weighed at weaning time, or at a year of age, will identify what could be vast difference in growth rates and could influence future selection of bulls to service the cow herd.
Producers can also keep track of which pastures get the most grazing per animal unit.
“There are differences there and, again, you’ve got to write it down someplace or put it on the computer if you’re going to really be able to evaluate whether your farm is making headway and progress, or whether you’re doing the same thing year after year and expect different outcomes,” Cole said.
Records also serve as proof that producers are complying with requirements of specific programs, or with legal obligations. Cole noted the Beef Quality Assurance Program, which requires ranchers to follow a set group of practices that are designed to meet industry and consumer demand for the final beef product. There is also the new Veterinary Feed Directive, which the federal government will begin to enforce in 2017.
“You’re going to need to keep records to prove that you have a prescription for you to be using certain antibiotics in the production of your animals,” said Cole. “Not only do you need to keep the records for a few years but so will your veterinarian, and the feed mill that is mixing up these feeds with the antibiotics that are included under the scrutiny of the government.”
With the vast array of data out there, Dr. Robert Wells, livestock consultant with the Samuel R. Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla., offered a list of the information he would prioritize for a records system.
“If there was one record that I would want somebody to keep on the production side, I would tell them it was pounds of weaned calf or saleable calf per exposed cow,” Wells told OFN. “That is a good indicator of, one, how our genetics are working for us – are we selling off the biggest calf we possibly can? And, two, it also takes into account how many cows did not bring a calf to the weaning pen.”
Other important ratios could be the percent of bred cows and their calving rates, average daily gain, and daily feed, mineral and hay distribution and, on the financial side, the total cost of carrying a cow on your operation for a year
While producers are building histories of their own operations for future reference, they can turn to Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) data offered by state Extension Services that look at how other cow/calf operations in the area are performing, both financially and on the production side.
“Once you have multiple years worth of records,” Wells said, “you can then benchmark against yourself as well so you can see if you’re progressing in the right direction. Are your calf weights getting heavier? Are your feed costs going down? Are your repair costs staying at least at the same level, or less than what they have historically?”
Records can be helpful to pinpoint problems. Wells said one of his clients was not getting the average daily gain he was expecting under a preconditioning program. Wells looked at the client’s records and concluded the rate of gain was consistent with the amount of feed the calves were getting. “This year,” he said, “we increased the rate of feed for his calves and he saw a dramatic increase in the amount of average daily gain on those calves post-weaning, which translated into a larger, more marketable calf to sell.”
