Industry Benchmark
43%
Why Its Important
Growth of calves or weaning weight is economically important to your cow calf operation.
If you currently do not record weights and other production records, keeping track will help you make improvements to your operation. A couple of options to consider are:
CattleMax https://www.cattlemax.com/canada and Go360
BioTrack: http://agsights.com/beef-cattle-management-software-system/
Lets get started
Making Improvements
Growth and weaning weight can be influenced significantly by non-genetic factors such as pasture or feed quality, sex, age of dam, season of birth, and calf birth weight. Keeping stress level of the calf low during the weaning process will help optimize performance.
When pasture conditions are favourable, cows can actually gain weight late during lactation, and calves may also be gaining body weight. Conversely, calf growth will not be at optimal efficiency if a cow’s body condition is declining. Good forage conditions will have a positive impact on performance.
Keeping stress level of the calf low during the weaning process will help optimize performance.
Goal Setting
The “golden rule” of farm management: a 5% improvement in productivity, plus a 5% increase from marketing savviness, plus a 5% gain in efficiency (lowered production costs) equals a 117% improvement to the bottom line.2
Please create an account to access the goal setting section. This will allow you to login at anytime in the future so you can evaluate how you’ve progressed. You will be given examples of steps you can take to help reach your goal, and will have the opportunity to indicate what your steps will be. Be sure to upload your completed KPI forms in order to access them in the future.
2https://www.fcc-fac.ca/en/ag-knowledge/ag-economics/to-stay-competitive-use-the-5-per-cent-rule.html
“Reproduction is the #1 key to a cow-calf operation.”
– Don Badour, Owner
DBM Land & Cattle
“We start calving between August 15-20 and try to wrap up by end of September. If we have 5 cows left to calve by mid-October, those calves will never catch up to the others when they are shipped. This is a difference of hundreds of dollars between the late calves and the others.
Your expenses are the same because you still have to feed the cows for the whole season.”
– Don Badour, Owner
DBM Land & Cattle
Additional Resources:
http://www.beefresearch.ca/economicmodel/pregnancy-detection.cfm
http://www.canfax.ca/samples/Preg%20checking%20April%202017.pdf
http://igrow.org/livestock/beef/measuring-cow-herd-performance/
Canfax: http://www.canfax.ca
Cattle Buyers Weekly: http://www.cattlebuyersweekly.com
Further reading:
https://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/2016/12/23/an-industry-in-crisisis-there-a-way-back-cow-calf-producers-hold-the-key/