Two sorts at weaning time will improve you profitability quicker than any other management decision you make. And it doesn’t take a computer, complicated software, scales or ear tags.
First, we identify the cows that are losing us money due to poor production and replace them with cows that will make us money.
Second, we try to eliminate cows that will likely cost us more than their calves are worth. These will be different than number one.
Remember, we are only trying to identify the cows that are not producing enough revenue to carry them for a full year.
The first sort removes the cows that did not wean a calf or are open—the obvious losers.
If it costs you $750 in grass, feed, medicine, labor and depreciation to carry a cow for one year, these cows just lost you $750, and if replaced with cows that produce calves worth more than $750 you just made $750 plus! Nothing else will improve your profitability quicker.
Another part of this sort is to identify cows that did not produce a calf valuable enough to pay their bills this year.
This is easy to do at weaning time after you have sorted the calves from the cows. Start by sorting the poorest, smallest, least valuable calves back with the cows. Only stop when every calf left in the pen is worth more than $750. As these cows and calves pair up, sort them into a separate pen and sell them before they lose you more money. Do not make excuses for pet cows or first calf heifers in this group. Why give them another chance to lose money again next year? Your other cows made the cut; don’t make excuses for those that didn’t.
You have now identified most of your losers, and by eliminating them you will make a major contribution to the profits from you cow herd.
CAUTION: This system will not work if you creep feed your calves!
Creep feeding eliminates the ability to identify your best and poorest producing cows. Creep feeding simply hides a cow’s true production by creating fake production from your cows. Creep feeding increases your production costs and isn’t needed if you eliminate the losers that are not producing a calf that pays their bills without the cost of creep feeding. At Flying H we have found that even in a drought, early weaning in more economical and still allows us to identify and eliminate the losers.
The second sort is a little harder but worth the effort.
From the cows that are left, start sorting out cows that don’t fit—too big, poor condition score, poor teat and udders, poor disposition, bad feet etc. These cows paid their way this year but probably won’t next year. This sort is being proactive; trying to prevent future loses by identifying cows and conditions that limit their long term profitability. Maybe you keep them till they calve to return the most profit but eliminating them before they lose you $1-200 per head makes real “cents.”
This didn’t take a computer, smartphone or ear tags but you just identified your profitable cows and eliminated the losers, making your cowherd more profitable.
But what about replacements?
You can buy them, but Flying H has always recommended that, if you have an above-average cow herd, you need to keep you own replacements. They will be more adapted to your management and environment, and if you’ve been buying the right bull genetics you’ll know what you are getting rather than hoping the ones you buy will “fit”. If you can’t develop them yourself, there are professional custom heifer developers that will do it for you.
The real question is, how do I pick the right replacements?
Making the sorts above on your cow herd and selling the pairs has eliminated some of the heifers you don’t want to keep. From the remaining heifers we suggest you remove the outliers. The biggest heifers are probably too large framed, others will be too coarse or bad structured or not feminine or sound. Sort off the nervous or wild ones. Thin, narrow or shallow-bodied heifers should go too. All of these criteria, plus those culled by the cow sort earlier should eliminate the obvious outs. Remember, you are searching for cows that will be profitable for many years so try to eliminate potential losers now.
This should leave you with more heifers than you need, maybe 50% or more depending on your current herd.
GOOD–because there are more sorts as they continue to develop and prove themselves. That’s right; they need to prove they are “good enough” to become part of your exceptional herd.
At Flying H Genetics, we utilize our “Heifer Challenge” to help identify the heifers with genetics that fit our management and environment. They can’t do that in a dry lot with bale rings or feed bunks. So we make them work for a living by having to forage daily, whether it is corn stalks, winter graze or grass. We do supplement a small portion of their ration to achieve around 1-1.25 pounds daily gain. This help us train them to forage or rough it and also helps identify those that, for whatever reason, don’t maintain average or better body condition.
These other sorts should include the following:
- Prebreeding—palpation, pelvic and condition score exams. Fails are culled. A new tool available in a DNA genetic test that actually looks at the heifer’s genetics and ranks them for various important traits. We would recommend this as the final step before breeding your replacements, as this selection is in addition to all of the production and phenotype culls you have made to this point. This will improve the percentage of bred heifers that actually make great cows.
- Breeding—AI or natural matings to genetically superior heifer bulls, must breed within two cycles to be kept. Opens are culled, late breds sold.
- Calving—must deliver a live calf, mother it and produce adequate milk with good teat and udder conformation.
- Weaning—must rebreed and pass the “cow cull” above to remain in the herd.
If, after all this culling you have more bred heifers than you need for replacements—CONGRATULATIONS!
Maybe you need to expand your herd to become even more profitable, or get even stricter with your culling to improve you herd faster.
At Flying H Genetics, we know this system of cow herd development works—we have been using it for many years and have seen a tremendous improvement in the quality and uniformity of our cow herd across all breeds.
As seed stock producers, Flying H Genetics includes additional culling criteria and selection tools to guarantee the quality of the genetics in the bulls our customers buy to build and improve their herds. We have to be more critical—including a sharp knife and our 17 quality standards—so you can be confident that any bull you buy from Flying H Genetics is genetically superior for all economically relevant traits!
