Why It’s Important
Loss of animals has a significant impact on overall productivity and your bottom line.
Industry Benchmark: Less than 4%
Lets get started
If you currently do not record mortality 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/
Making Improvements
Calves die during birth, not long after calving, or when they are suckling on pasture. A shorter calving season can help minimize death loss, since it is easier to keep a close watch on calving cows over a shorter time span. Keep track of the number of calves that die from birth to weaning. The number to aim for is less than four percent. If your number is consistently higher than this, talk with your veterinarian, nutritionist or livestock specialist to trouble shoot and develop a strategy to minimize death loss.
A shorter calving season can help minimize death loss, since it is easier to keep a close watch on calving cows over a shorter time span.
Goal Setting
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.
“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/