Culling for Efficiency

October, 2011
Courtney Davis - Extension Agent I, Dairy/Water Quality, Okeechobee County Extension

It is that time of the year, everyone is either shipping cows or done shipping cows. Producers are checking cows for pregnancy and hopefully culling non producers. One of the easiest and quickest ways to improve efficiently and profits in your herd is to cull non producers. The failure of females to become pregnant directly impacts the economic viability of every beef operation, however producers rarely realize how infertility impacts their individual operations. Applying little or no selection pressure on females in the herd lowers the overall herd productively. The cow herd should be evaluated each year for non producers. Infertility that leads to the failure of cow or heifer to calve during the calving season results in the single largest economic loss to beef producers, because there is no profit from those cows for an additional year. If she does not breed back for the second year in a row there will be two years of economical loss.

There are multiple reasons that beef females fail to become pregnant, such as cows and heifers that do not start their estrous cycles during the breeding season, disease, or sub optimal management. In addition cows can fail to calve because of disease or traumatic event (such as extreme freezes, rains or drought) during their pregnancy. Approximately 34.5% of all U.S. beef producers use pregnancy detection a management method to determine whether cows are pregnant and use this tool to make culling decisions. In the southeastern United States, only 19.4% of produces use this tool for making culling decisions. There is a significant cost to the producer for maintaining those cows for a full year without producing a calf. Without a calf sale, cost of supplemented feed, pasture, and other expenses directly decrease the profitability of one’s operation.

Another place where producers can lose money is cows that are bred back late in the breeding season. When cows are diagnosed as pregnant, but fail to calve or calve late in the calving season they have a negative impact on the return on the sale of calves. An example of this is calves can gain 1.5 to 2 pounds per day suckling their dam. A calf conceived on the first day of the calving season has the opportunity to gain more pounds than calf born 60-90 days into the breeding season. Reducing infertility will ensure that more females calve toward the beginning of the calving season and in turn guarantee higher weaning weights at shipping time.

Additionally, your culling criteria should include cows with a history of assisted births, poor udder and teat structure and other factors that detract from cow/calf performance. Another part of improving you economics should be getting your bull(s) tested annually. This one animal can affect your entire herd and significantly lower overall production and profits.

With a few small changes to your beef operation Florida producers can reduce overall losses on their profitability. Data from the National Animal Health Monitoring Service (NAHMS 1997) and inventories accessed using the National Agricultural Statistics Services (NASS) estimates the cost of infertility to the 950,00 cows owned by Florida beef producers exceeds $71 million. That is a lot of money that can be saved by simply culling non-producers. References

Carter, J.N. 2007. Put the Pressure on Your Cows for Performance. EDIS

Lamb, G. C., Dahlen, C., and Maddox, M. 2008. What is the Economic Impact of Infertility in Beef Cattle?. EDIS


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