Heifer
Cow-calf returns vary significantly across producers due to widely variable costs of production, but strong market signals for cow-calf producers to expand the beef cow herd.
Veterinarian Kirk Ramsey discusses ways to to prepare first-calf heifers to breed back.
Prediction tool from UNL provides a starting point for evaluating whether to buy, sell or trade replacement cows.
One of the questions veterinarians are helping cow-calf producers answer is whether it’s a better decision to raise their own calves or buy them.
Here are some basic rules of thumb to follow when determining the hay supplies you will need to sustain your cow herd over the next few months.
Have you wanted to have more calves born earlier in your calving season, but didn’t want to deal with the increase in labor, cost and facilities to utilize estrus synchronization and artificial insemination?
The pace of expansion of the U.S. cow inventory will be slower than past cycles including the fact that beef production takes longer than other proteins.
As long as the beef market is hot, the key for producers will be maintaining the right number of lactating cows going through the parlor and ensuring the right number of replacement heifers can keep that pipeline full.
Selecting heifers that will have the optimum mature size and milk level to fit our production system, breed quickly, wean a calf annually and have longevity is important for the success of your ranch.
Reducing dependence on feeds and susceptibility to poor weather or market conditions, there is growing interest in developing replacement heifers at a lower cost without compromising reproductive performance.
Reproductive Tract Scoring is a measurement involving rectal palpation of the heifer reproductive tract and the subsequent assignment of a reproductive tract score, to assist in making replacement heifer decisions.
Heifers conceiving early in their first breeding season will have increased lifetime production and efficiency. It is critical heifers attain enough weight to initiate their first estrous before the onset of breeding.
University of Missouri’s David Patterson gives a detailed look at why we must understand the science behind fixed-time and split-time AI protocols for the overall health and performance of our future cow herds.
One of the things University of Missouri researchers discovered as they looked at heifer development is the importance of identifying the fertility response of heifers before breeding.
Many Oklahoma ranchers choose to breed the replacement heifers about a month ahead of the mature cows in the herd.
The first calf heifer is one of the most challenging animals in the cowherd for a number of reasons.
Now that we have left behind a few years of severe droughts and hay shortages, there has been renewed talk about beef herd reconstruction in the U.S. fueled by a couple years of encouraging calf prices.
The technology, marketed as FerAppease in the U.S., can be used in beef and dairy animals. Economic analysis, depending on the production stage of use, offers an ROI of 20:1 to 30:1.