Management
than can cattle genetics—not to say
that genetics aren’t important. mistakes and help you do a lot of things right.
Good graziers visit and learn from each other.
6. 7.
Don’t assume that you know what “good
grazing” is after hearing about it or seeing
someone else do it. Take time to learn and
understand the principles. Also, go visit someone
who has been doing good grazing for some
time. They can help you avoid simple, costly
In cattle genetics, your first decision should
be to choose between maternal and terminal
matings. In terminal matings, you will buy
replacement cows, breed them to high growth,
high carcass sires and sell all of the offspring.
In maternal matings you will
make your own replacement
heifers. You need to be very
careful to keep cow size and
milk production at moderate
levels and to ensure longevity.
The longevity may be more
important to your bred cow
customers than to you.
8.
Buying replacement
cows, making terminal matings
and selling all the calves is
more profitable than maternal
matings unless you can sell
bred cows at a premium or
can sell the calves and open
heifer into a grass-fed market.
9.
The business needs to be
both profitable and fun. Then
it can be satisfying. Lack of
profitability causes depression
and anxiety. Children are much
more likely to want to become
part of a business that provides
some level of satisfaction.
10.
You should pay attention
to and learn from good research.
However, if you search enough,
you can usually find research
that will prove almost any point
of view. That would especially
be true if all good research
were published. Seldom,
if ever, is good replicated
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