Strategic Planning
Yes, we keep rerunning this every sale. It’s always worth re-reading and thinking about!
Make a great maternal herd the ranch level. The cows have these characteristics: very good fertility, longevity, good udders, good feet and legs providing good locomotion, dis- ease and parasite resistance, calving ease; young age at puberty, good dis- position, and great mothering ability. Several steps can be taken to im- prove maternal traits in herds:
I am aware of only a few great maternal herds. I am sure there are some of which I am unaware. However, there are not nearly enough. By great maternal herds I mean those that achieve pregnancy rates of 92% to 96% through good years and bad, with little hay feed- ing and minimal supplementation of protein and minerals. There are many herds that get good conception rates through reli- ance on much winter hay feeding, and good doses of supplemental pro- tein and minerals, and sometimes even grain and total mixed rations. Those are not great maternal herds because there is a high probability that they are unprofitable — espe- cially in the tough years. As I continue to work as a speak- er for livestock producer meetings, I hear more and more stories of herds where conception rates were in a range of 90% to 96% a decade or two ago. Now they struggle to get con- ception rates exceeding 80%. As I question further, it becomes apparent that their cows have got- ten too big, are trying to produce more milk than their environments will allow, and have too little or even no heterosis. These cows have lower body condition in spite of often being fed much more in the wintertime. The owners are now either running fewer cows or buying more feed. The great maternal herds are those that are more profitable at
• Over time, reduce dependence on fed feeds and supplementation. • Keep most of the heifer calves and expose them to bulls and — per- haps over several years — shorten the breeding season to as little as 24 days. • For cows, gradually, shorten the calving season to 30 days, but don’t shorten the breeding season. Create the discipline to cull the late-calving or late-bred cows before the next calving season. • To make good maternal cows, only select bulls whose dams always calve as a result of first-cycle concep- tion. If you select a bull from a first- calf heifer, ensure she also calved in the first cycle as a 3-year-old before making the selection. Then, stick to the cow-culling pro- tocol: opens, dries, those with bad dispositions, those requiring individ- ual attention, those that raise poor calves, and ugly ones (your defini- tion, but don’t be too tough). Even in good herds, opens and dries make up most of the culls. If you routinely cull the others, you won’t have many to cull in any given year — and you will like your herd. Teichert, a consultant on strategic planning for ranches, retired in 2010 as vice president and general man- ager of AgReserves, Inc. He resides in Orem, Utah. Contact him at burke- tei@comcast.net. ❚❚
This does not mean lots of milk, but the ability to deliver a healthy calf, stay mothered on pasture moves or long drives, and teach the calf to eat and live in its environment. These cows may not wean the big- gest calves, but the calves grow well for the environment in which they are raised. While the calves may not perform as well in the feedlot as ter- minal-sired calves, they should have very acceptable growth rates and feed conversion if they are slaugh- tered on time. The calves may even excel for the grass-fed niche. The great maternal herds are characterized by cows that get preg- nant as yearlings and again as 2-year-olds. They are good mothers raising good calves to an acceptable weaning weight. They maintain good body condition, using mostly grazed feed with minimal supplementation. Because of their self-sufficiency, they enable a significant reduc- tion in the need for overheads such as calving facilities and tools, and haymaking and feeding equipment along with labor and fuel. Such herds produce increased turnover resulting from their innate fertility and survivability.
42 beefmagazine.com April 2019
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