The Beef Cattle Research Council, Canada’s industry-led funding agency for beef, cattle and forage research, is publishing a blueprint for cattle-producer record keeping that is aimed at helping producers keep good, useful records on their operations.
The guidance is being released in “levels” that build on each other. The first was released May 28, and the second came last week.
Many Extension livestock specialists have advised a greater level of measurement of livestock and their performance. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” is the mantra of many.
LEVEL 1
Level one dealt with animal health and performance, health treatments and withdrawal times, forage and grasslands, genetics and financial applications.
For animal health and performance, the BCRC said to measure the growth of calves. An increase of five pounds in average weaning weights has been shown to decrease the cost of production by C$6.75 a head, the BCRC said.
Collect that data by taking the total pounds weaned divided by the number of head weaned, the release said. Growth rate is considered to be moderately heritable, so this information may be useful in deciding which cows to keep or cull or which bulls to use.
Other factors that influence calf growth are environmental factors like nutrition, health, cow performance and milking ability, the BCRC said.
Reproductive efficiency also plays a part in cow/calf producer profits, the group said. This takes into account other factors like the number of calves born per the number of cows exposed.
“A 2% increase in reproductive efficiency decreases cost of production by C$16.50 a head,” the BCRC said, and feeding a cow over the winter accounts for 50% of the total cost to keep her in the herd.
The industry benchmark is less than 7% open, the BCRC said. Infertility can be caused by several things like nutrition, disease, heat stress, mineral imbalance or inferior genetics.
The dates of the first and last calf born in a season also were important, the paper said. The industry benchmark was 63 days.
The length of the calving period is a measure of the fertility of a herd, the BCRC said. The ability to have more calves born in a shorter period can produce a more uniform calf crop and can improve average weaning weight and provides a longer time for cows to recover and begin cycling before rebreeding.
Calf death loss is something else to consider, the BCRC said. The industry benchmark was less than 4% death loss.
While death loss can vary from year to year because of herd health, weather and predators, this is an area where smaller producers have an advantage over larger operations, the group said. A 1% increase in death loss increases the cost of production by C$7.45 a head.
Keeping track of death loss can help identify herd health issues, the BCRC said. It can help identify clusters that can show where herd health or other factors can be addressed.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Fed cattle trading was reported this week at $118 per cwt on a live basis, up $6 to down $2 from last week’s range. Dressed-basis trading was seen at $178 to mostly $187 per cwt, steady to down $3.
The USDA choice cutout Monday was down $22.19 per cwt at $341.15, while select was off $23.24 at $316.83. The choice/select spread widened to $23.27 from $23.27 with 138 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Friday was $128.96 per cwt, down $0.40. This compares with Monday’s Aug contract settlement of $136.12, up $0.77.