Records have value to cattle producers provided they’re used, and not just kept.
Steve Swigert, agricultural economic consultant with the Samuel R. Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Okla., told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor most producers don’t have the data to assess herd performance using individual records, so he recommends going the whole herd route. “What I’d be looking at initially would be the reproduction side of it,” Swigert said, “knowing how many calves that I was able to wean off the cow herd that I have out there. Once you’ve got some of that basic information, if you’re willing to analyze it and actually use it back in your operation, there may be some opportunities to drill down into that specific information.”
Swigert said the producer can use whole herd performance to determine whether the herd is meeting or exceeding the benchmarks of the region. “At that point,” Swigert said, “you can look at your cost as it relates to how many pounds of calves you weaned off it, or pounds weaned per grazable acres.” The producer can then determine whether a change in herd genetics is needed to produce the type of calf called for by the marketplace.
He recommended producers keep recordkeeping as simple as possible until they’ve generated and analyzed enough of it to justify a step up. “Computers are nice, but you can keep it on a tablet,” he said. “As you get more into it the computer, whether it’s Excel or one of the cow/calf record systems, could be used as you go along.”
For a producer keeping individual records, the first basic unit of information is the weight of calves within 24 hours of birth, said University of Missouri Extension southwest region livestock specialist Eldon Cole. “Some will also combine with that a calving ease score,” Cole told OFN, “where ‘1’ means they were born unassisted where you just go out and find a new calf out there, ‘2’ would be a slight hand assist, ‘3’ would be a hard pull with the hand, and a ‘4’ would get us up into the calf jack work where you have to pry them out.”
Also important is the weaning weight, which is usually taken between 160-250 days of age and then adjusted to 205 days. While ranchers don’t worry about cows that produce calves of non-conforming birth weights, because they’re highly dependent on the bull and other factors, Cole said weaning weights allow them, “to find out as quickly as we can if that cow is going to milk pretty well and wean off heavy calves. They’ve all been given the same chance; if that 205-day weight means she’s 10 or 15 percent below the average of the herd, there’s usually not much reason to keep her in the future; she’s going to follow that same percentile ranking within the herd pretty consistently.”
If your whole herd weaning weight is below average, Cole said that could signal a change is needed in either genetics or management. “It gets to be a little bit challenging to figure out which is causing the trouble,” he said “Weaning time is a trait that is about 30 percent due to genetics and 70 percent of the difference that we see are due to the environment such as the pasture, supplemental feed and proper deworming. It could be a combination of things, but that’s where the management, and the man who’s behind that management, have to make a tough call.” He added that in his opinion, endophyte-infected fescue is preventing a lot of herds from realizing their potential.
