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Central IA | So...this is kind of a compilation of things I have been thinking about lately. We have been building a small cow herd the last few years, but I'm seeing some areas that need improvement but my mentor, Grandpa, want much in the way of management, to put it mildly. I did learn a lot from him, though, and he got me started feeding cattle as he began selling me his steers when I was in high school and I finished them out. Well, my wife and I now have our own (small) cow herd and I have been reflecting a bit after selling 2016's calves where we want to go and how I need to improve.
I have been selling my calves in January at about 550#'s on average (checked and they averaged 650 this year, the 550 average across everything came from 2 little summer heifers that were not really part of the "calf crop"). I would like to focus on increasing my sale weights (calving earlier, focusing more on keeping the herd tighter in regard to calving period, creep feeding, and backgrounding after weaning). I currently calve in April, but i now have some facilities and would feel comfortable calving in March. It would also help spread some workload out. I also have had hire a variation in weights as my calvinving period gets strung out. That's not good when you have a small bunch of calves to begin with. I know 60 days is a industry benchmark, but do any of you keep your groups tighter than this?
Also, would anyone care to share their annual vaccination program? I've raised hogs and always had a well planned vaccination program pre-breed, pre-farrow, etc. What does everyone do pre-calving, pre-breed, pre-wean, etc?
I want to do a better job keeping records so I can keep track of generations, etc. Right now, I just give each calf a tag with the dams number (or name, lol). We currently have a purebred herd and a commercial herd, both spring calving. In the near future, I would also like to add a fall commercial herd to the mix. What is everyone's preferred method of keeping all this straight? Right now, we're still small enough that many of our cows are named instead of numbered. However, my first thought is to re tag the cows starting with say 100, then tag the 2017 calf 100E? I always keep a calf book, but I worry about those getting lost/destroyed. I need something hard to keep record in too...
I have lots of other questions also, and what i posted probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but basically I want to put together more of a "reputation" group of calves, whether I feed them or sell them, and keep better records of what comes from where as we have a few different herds, bulls, and we do AI some and will probably do more in the future. Any help, ideas, or advise is appreciated! Thanks!
Edited by ISUAgBusiness 2/23/2017 00:15
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Cow herd management...lots of questions...
