Management
Shifting emphasis
Banking on increased weaning weight
to expand cow-calf revenue appears
to have about run its course.
“There’s quite a bit of evidence to suggest the
trend for weaning weight is flat in commercial
cow-calf operations in some parts of the
country,” says Dave Lalman, Extension beef cattle
specialist at Oklahoma State University (OSU).
He’s referring to a recently published study he
conducted with other researchers, indicating
that weaning weights are no longer increasing
in the northern half of the country and appear
to be on their way to plateauing elsewhere.
“Each operation needs to keep good records and
use their own trend over time to make informed
decisions about how best to improve ranch
profitability” Lalman says. “Weight of calf weaned
per cow exposed to breeding the previous year
is probably the single most powerful metric
to consider, because it combines growth and
reproductive efficiency.”
In the recent publication,
researchers were only able to
look at regional trends in calf
weaning weight. However,
other data (SPA, FINBIN,
CHAPS, KFMA) suggest that
weaning rate has been static in
commercial herds for 25 years.
“Therefore, it is unlikely that
our industry has made recent
progress in pounds weaned per
cow exposed,” Lalman says.
“If your operation is one that cannot document
improvement over time in output [weaning weight
and/or weight weaned per cow exposed] for the
past 10 years, then your focus needs to shift more
toward controlling cost of production and [/or]
capturing postweaning value,” Lalman says.
“This is particularly true if a ranch has aggressively
selected herd sires and replacement heifers for
weaning weight growth, with little or no evidence
of progress over a period of five to 10 years.”
Case in point: He explains Kansas Farm
Management Association (KFMA) data
indicate, depending on the year, that 60%
to 66% of profitability improvement is due
to lower cost of production. About 33% to
40% is the result of increased output.
Kevin Herbel, KFMA executive director, and Dustin
Pendell, an agricultural economist at Kansas
Bill & Judy Daugherty
14210 Whites Mill Rd.
Abingdon, Virginia 24210
Judy, Mobile: 423/646-2150
Herdsman: Alex Anderson
Mobile: 276/623-3623
WE WELCOME YOUR INTEREST IN OUR PROGRAM AND
THE EXCELLENT GENETICS WE ARE PRODUCING.
“… Assuming lack of significant
progress in calf body weight
at weaning, efforts to enhance
enterprise profitability should
focus on reducing cost of
production and capturing value
of genetic potential for superior
postweaning performance,”
according to the study.
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