Management
are the most important determinants of profit that relate to genetics.
So, bull selection should be based on fertility, calving ease( direct and maternal), disease resistance and longevity, maintenance requirements and temperament. I would add adaptability; but, if cows have these traits in your environment, they are becoming adapted.
Some would add milk to the list, but I contend that milk is anti-maternal. The conversion from grass to milk to pounds of calf is a terrible conversion. If you reduce the milk, you can add to carrying capacity and improve conception rates.
I would use milk EPDs to put a limit on milk production as I would use hip height and mature weight EPDs to put a limit on cow size. I think there are not yet good, reliable EPDs for fertility, longevity, cow herd maintenance requirements and disease resistance.
Remember, herds producing their own replacements will not be as profitable as those buying replacement cows and producing“ high growth, high carcass” calves unless you sell bred cows as a major profit center. To be successful as a maternal breeder:
• Select bulls that won’ t undo what you are trying to accomplish by culling. Actually, cow culling is accomplished by selecting which cows to market as bred cows. They are not bad cows— just not as good as you want yours to become.
• For strong maternal traits, bulls should be selected only from cows that always calve as a result of first cycle breeding. There should be evidence in closely related females that the bulls you are purchasing have a high probability of siring females with good udders, structural soundness and good body condition with minimal supplementation.
• Expose heifers to bulls for a very short season.
• Maintain a very short calving season. I like leaving bulls with the cows for a long time and selling all the late bred and / or late calving cows. Be disciplined to not keep any late-calvers.
• Without excuse, market every open, dry or late-calving cow. Market bad dispositions, mothers of poor calves and those that require individual handling.
• If you strictly cull for these problems every year, you will soon not have many to cull each year for reasons other than being open or dry. And the numbers of opens and dries will diminish also. You will be selling far more pregnant cows than opens.
I know several herds where selling bred cows has become a significant enterprise. Well over 50 % of their total livestock revenue comes from the sale of bred cows.
In several of these herds, only the very best cows are kept beyond 6 years of age. They are capturing the appreciation that occurs in the younger cow years and avoiding the market value depreciation that begins to occur at about age 6. Also, the steer calf or yearling steer by-product of this system can still be a very acceptable product in the marketplace.
It appears to me that too many in our industry are trying to straddle the fence and combine both terminal and maternal in the same herd. It doesn’ t work. Because of the available and most popular EPDs, you end up selecting for too much growth and carcass quality and lose cow efficiency.
Everywhere I go, I see bigger cows giving much more milk. Stocking rates are falling, and / or much more supplemental feed is being brought in. Conception rates are falling.
I know that it is not a scientific sample, but anecdotally I hear from the people who respond to these columns that they are having the problems just described and they are beginning to make changes to get profitability back in line. When bigger calves mean fewer total pounds sold and for a lower price, it isn’ t really working very well.
For those buying replacement cows, don’ t be afraid to pay a nice premium for good cows. Those selling them deserve and need the premium for breeding and calving heifers. Those yearling heifers take up space( feed) but don’ t produce a calf that year. The one paying the premium for good replacement cows is making a low-cost substitution of depreciation for heifer development costs. I
Teichert, a consultant on strategic planning for ranches, retired in 2010 as vice president and general manager of AgReserves, Inc. He resides in Orem, Utah. Contact him at burketei @ comcast. net.
This article was reprinted with permission from the BEEF Magazine.
42 | OCTOBER 2018