Proper Cow Culling Is Important To Your Business
Six criteria to help decide which cows to keep in your herd.
Cull cows represent approximately 20% of the gross income of any commercial cow-calf operation. Cull beef cows represent 10% of the beef that is consumed in the United States. Therefore, ranchers need to make certain that cow culling is done properly and profitably. Selling cull cows when they will return the most income to the rancher requires knowledge about cull cow health and body condition.
Maintaining Value
Keep cull calves profitable.
Each fall when you go to market your weaned calves, it seems like there are a handful of outliers in your calf crop that could cost you some premiums. Don’t dismay; there are ways to find value for every calf that you’ve produced. It might just take some extra time or some different marketing venues.
Calving Considerations
Repeatability of calving difficulty a key to keep in mind.
An Oklahoma cow-calf producer once asked about the repeatability of calving difficulty in young cows. He had a 2-year-old heifer that endured a very difficult delivery. After the event is over and the cow and calf are doing well, the rancher can’t help but ask the question: “If a heifer has calving difficulty this year, what is the likelihood that she will have trouble again next year?”
Lessening the Learning Curve
New National Center for Applied Reproduction and Genomics to teach efficiency-increasing technologies.
Marketing instead of selling is necessary in the beef industry. The benefit to reproductive and genomic technology is being able to market based on genetic merit and knowing that genetic merit at birth.
Increase Beef Marbling Without Increasing Overall Fatness
USDA grant received by Texas Tech to investigate how activating a receptor makes for healthier beef.
The desire to find the juiciest piece of beef, be it a steak or ribs or roast, isn’t limited to just the restaurant and how it is seasoned or cooked. It starts well before that.
It begins when the cattle are still alive, still being raised and fed, and how and what they are fed. The more ranchers can increase the marbling in beef cattle, the better the beef and the higher the price it can fetch when it is sold. Increasing the marbling in beef is a tricky undertaking, with numerous factors in play.
Gizmos & Gadgets
New and useful products for the farm and ranch.
New products to manage livestock loads in one place, submit feed-testing samples and protect plants from winter desiccation.
