By Sandy Johnson, Extension Beef Specialist, Colby
The start of a new year is a common time for people to make resolutions to start or stop actions that are intended to make life better. If you reflect back on the cow herd, did you have the necessary information to make management or financial decisions? Is there room for improvement?
The need for various types of records will depend on goals and management system. The focus of this article will be on commercial cow-calf producers. Seedstock producers would have additional production records to support more intensive selection systems.
Herd level records should be combined with financial information to make management decisions. Examples include January 1 inventory, number exposed for breeding, pregnancy rate and number of calves weaned. With knowledge of the unit cost of production (cost to produce 1 pound of weaned calf), costs and potential returns for various management choices and risk management tools can be evaluated.
If you sell calves at weaning and buy replacement females the need for individual animal records is much different than someone that raises replacements and retains ownership through harvest. For those that sell calves at weaning and buy replacements, a major goal of individual cow records should be to support culling decisions. When the next drought forces herd reduction, can you easily identify the oldest cows, those with udder problems, ones that experienced calving difficulty, weaned light weight calves or had a bad attitude? In a “normal” year, your memory may be sufficient for the worst offenders, but if a larger percent of the herd must be sold, detailed records can make identification of that group easier. Consider use of common scoring systems for udder quality and calving difficulty outlined in the K-State cow/calf record book or Beef Improvement Federation Guidelines. If your production system carries-over open cows, those should be noted and factored into a culling list. A simple record could be made by notching the cow’s tag if she’s in the chute for a problem such as her calf needs help nursing on a large teat or she is palpated open. Each notch on the tag puts the cow higher on the cull list.
If you raise your replacements there is additional information you may consider collecting. My first cut on replacement selection is age. Those heifers born in the first 21 days of the calving period have the best chance to conceive early their first breeding season and remain in the herd longer and wean more total pounds of calf in a lifetime. If you don’t want to record birth dates but you do use individual ear tags, age could be noted a number of other ways. For example, a different colored tag, or a notch or other mark on the tag could identify heifers born after a certain point in the calving season.
From the “age advantaged” group of replacements, I remove any with feet or leg issues or bad attitudes and then consider other information on traits of the dam such as udder quality and longevity in the herd. Further selection would depend on existing strengths and weaknesses of the herd. For example, the very heaviest heifers might be culled because mature cow size is bigger than desired. Some herds have challenges with the quality of foot and hoof structures and may want to consider the use of the foot scoring guidelines available from the Angus Association.
A common question that arises during recording keeping discussions is what is the best system or program. Because of the wide differences in goals, herd size and general preferences there is not one best system. When considering options, it is important to have a good idea of what records you currently need and to keep in mind you may want to add other traits in the future. Paper records or a spreadsheet may work fine for some but others may find a commercial program is more suited to their goals and abilities. An Oklahoma State University publication titled Cow-calf Production Record Software is a helpful place to start addressing some of these issues for your own operation.
Government indemnity programs to help lessen the financial blow of large death losses due to adverse weather or certain types of diseases are relatively new to the livestock industry. Producers can receive compensation for death in excess of normal mortality. If you don’t have records of death loss for your own herd, average values are used for indemnity claims. If your normal death losses are lower than most, documentation of this information would help your cause. Basic inventory seems like a simple record to keep; however, it may be that remembering to record the information is the challenge. A photo helps document death losses but the information must still be summarized to be most useful.
When decisions need to be made for selection or culling, the more information you have, the more confidence you have that your goals will be reached. If you collected information in the past but it was not in a form that could be easily used, look for better options in the coming year.
