Because the seasons come and go, the manufacturing cycle of the meat herd additionally modifications. Cows calve, calves develop, and alternative heifers are chosen. Choosing alternative heifers utilizing manufacturing information, herd targets, and obtainable assets can guarantee the proper females are staying within the manufacturing system.
Simply as buying a brand new herd bull can instantly affect genetic enchancment, deciding on alternative heifers that match your manufacturing targets and obtainable assets can affect the underside line. Manufacturing information are one software within the choice course of. Sustaining herd information on cow productiveness might embody; calving date, delivery weights, weaning weights, calving help, calf survivability, cow BCS, cow traits, calving intervals, and temperament. Heifers born from dams needing help with calving and nursing due to teat or udder defects or poor temperaments shouldn’t be retained. Realizing 50% of a alternative heifer’s genetics come from the dam, analyzing the dam’s collective knowledge earlier than you head out to kind heifers into the “maintain” or “feedlot” pen could make selections simpler on the sorting gate.
Realizing which heifers look good on paper can assist maintain you from deciding on just one trait, like physique measurement. For example, utilizing information to calculate a 205-day age when deciding on heifers at weaning can decide which heifers meet your development price targets. Maintaining the largest heifers annually might have a detrimental impact. Sure, you possibly can be maintaining essentially the most environment friendly rising heifers, however in the long term, this might transfer the dimensions of the mature cow herd to a larger-than-desired mature-cow measurement. Realizing the “massive” heifers are greater than their counterparts as a consequence of age and never genotype is useful in choice. Choose the oldest heifers that meet your standards. Early-born heifers have greater charges of puberty attainment previous to the beginning of their first breeding season. Because of this, early-born heifers conceive earlier within the breeding season and subsequently calve earlier within the calving season. This in flip leads to early-born heifers having older and heavier calves at weaning in addition to improved reproductive efficiency in subsequent breeding seasons. Thus, serving to to keep up a good calving window to supply a extra constantly sized calf crop within the following years.
Take time through the winter months to find out your herd’s manufacturing and profitability targets. Manufacturing targets ought to embody calving home windows, weaning weights, the variety of calves weaned, and herd measurement. Profitability targets are simply as essential, and alternative heifers could make or break these targets. Will the group of heifers keep inside your funds, or are you deciding on heifers that want extra supplemental feed to achieve breeding weights? Will they mature into cows that match obtainable assets? Assembly the dietary necessities of rising heifers with the identical assets they are going to be fed as mature cows will assist match the heifer’s capacity to carry out on these feedstuffs after they mature, thusly, managing feed prices. Choose heifers from older cows as these cows are profitable within the present manufacturing system, as alternative heifers should develop and develop in related feeding circumstances.
Within the upcoming 12 months, elevated feed prices to assist heifer improvement will must be analyzed to find out monetary feasibility. Maintaining feed and forage prices in test requires matching the cow and herd measurement to obtainable feed assets. Choosing alternative heifers utilizing manufacturing information, herd targets, and obtainable assets permits producers to handle feed prices and enhance heifer choice.
