West Central Nebraska - Sandhills | Everyone has their own approach to this, there isn’t a right or wrong. In general a bred female is worth more than an open female. But what it really boils down to is what that difference is, and the cost of feed in the mean time. If an open cow is worth $700 (if you’re lucky right now), but you can get maybe $1100-1200 out of her as late come spring time, I would sure think it’d be worth keeping her around if you’ll have a half dozen to sell. If you’ve got an open heifer weighing 850-900 and she’s going to bring $1300 in the fall, it doesn’t really pay to keep her around to sell her as a late bred heifer in the spring if you may only get $1400-$1500 out of her. You have to really know what you have, and how it would be marketable as bred, as well as what the cull prices are and what your winter feed prices are. For us we breed heifers AI and only leave bulls in 1 month, then we sell opens in September. We breed cows AI June 1 but leave bulls in until November and then sell any bred cows that haven’t calved by May. Seems to me the bred cow market is hot in April/May sometimes. |
Ultrasound and culling. Pulling bulls etc..
