SRBeef
Well-known member
We have had discussions about cow size here before. In my situation I am acres-limited. I am looking to produce the most pounds of marketable beef per acre that I can in an all-Hereford birth-to-plate operation.
My vet and I worked the herd a few weeks ago. This included weighing all of the cows, spring calves, yearling heifers and steers and bull. I had a breeding soundness exam done this past weekend and again weighed the steers and bull group.
In looking at the weight numbers from May 15th, I am taking those as base numbers for cow weights. Calves were all born between 4/12 and 5/3, so the cows should be back at their baselines weights and had a couple weeks of good grass.
Using Cattlemax which has a number of very good weight reports and lots of ways to display them, I listed my cows from heaviest to lightest. I also listed my yearling steers and heifers from heaviest to lightest and also by rate of gain over the two weeks between May 15 and May 30th weighings. My heaviest cow was at 1530 lb, the lightest at 1115 lb.
The thing that jumps out of the data is that the heaviest, good looking, good phenotype cows (one of them is in my avatar) do NOT have the heaviest, fastest gaining yearlings. My heaviest and fastest gaining steer actually comes from of one of my lighter cows. The three heaviest cows had steers and heifers in the middle of the actual weight range and low end of the gain per day.
One confounding factor is that these yearlings were not out of my current bull nor even out of the same bull. A couple cows were purchased bred, a couple yearlings are out of a rent a bull my neighbor and I used in 2007.
HOWEVER, if the information in Aussie Girl's post about the male inheriting more of the COW's genes rather than the bull's genes is correct, maybe the difference in the steers' growth is more a function of the cow than the bull?
Finally my question: As I am interested in producing the most beef per acre, it seems to me that in fact I should sell what on first glance would seem to be my best looking, deep chested, long, good milking cows. Theoretically these three heaviest cows could be replaced by 4 smaller 1200 lb cows and produce 4 calves rather than 3 and those 4 might even each be heavier than any of the heavier cows' calves at yearling age.
Having 4 calves in place of 3 is a 33% increase in beef production with theoretically no increase in grass consumption (to weaning at least) since the total cow weight of the 4 lighter cows would equal the total weight of the 3 heavier culled cows.
The problem is I am ending up culling my best "LOOKING" cows! The thing I am struggling with is what good is a large, good phenotype cow? It's the calf she produces which is her annual output. And that output does not, by my numbers so far, seem to have much correlation to her own size.
My smaller, 1115 - 1250 lb cows are not as impressive to look at as the bigger ones but seem in the end to produce calves that are actually better than the big, flashy cows' calves.
So do I cull my "best looking" cows???? What is wrong with my new-to-cattle, engineers' logic here???? Here is a picture of #77 which is my heaviest cow but ended up with a really middle of the pack yearling steer. (website would not let me upload photo for some reason - this is the one in my avatar)
I appreciate any comments suggestions, different ways of looking at this side of the "cow size" question. Jim
My vet and I worked the herd a few weeks ago. This included weighing all of the cows, spring calves, yearling heifers and steers and bull. I had a breeding soundness exam done this past weekend and again weighed the steers and bull group.
In looking at the weight numbers from May 15th, I am taking those as base numbers for cow weights. Calves were all born between 4/12 and 5/3, so the cows should be back at their baselines weights and had a couple weeks of good grass.
Using Cattlemax which has a number of very good weight reports and lots of ways to display them, I listed my cows from heaviest to lightest. I also listed my yearling steers and heifers from heaviest to lightest and also by rate of gain over the two weeks between May 15 and May 30th weighings. My heaviest cow was at 1530 lb, the lightest at 1115 lb.
The thing that jumps out of the data is that the heaviest, good looking, good phenotype cows (one of them is in my avatar) do NOT have the heaviest, fastest gaining yearlings. My heaviest and fastest gaining steer actually comes from of one of my lighter cows. The three heaviest cows had steers and heifers in the middle of the actual weight range and low end of the gain per day.
One confounding factor is that these yearlings were not out of my current bull nor even out of the same bull. A couple cows were purchased bred, a couple yearlings are out of a rent a bull my neighbor and I used in 2007.
HOWEVER, if the information in Aussie Girl's post about the male inheriting more of the COW's genes rather than the bull's genes is correct, maybe the difference in the steers' growth is more a function of the cow than the bull?
Finally my question: As I am interested in producing the most beef per acre, it seems to me that in fact I should sell what on first glance would seem to be my best looking, deep chested, long, good milking cows. Theoretically these three heaviest cows could be replaced by 4 smaller 1200 lb cows and produce 4 calves rather than 3 and those 4 might even each be heavier than any of the heavier cows' calves at yearling age.
Having 4 calves in place of 3 is a 33% increase in beef production with theoretically no increase in grass consumption (to weaning at least) since the total cow weight of the 4 lighter cows would equal the total weight of the 3 heavier culled cows.
The problem is I am ending up culling my best "LOOKING" cows! The thing I am struggling with is what good is a large, good phenotype cow? It's the calf she produces which is her annual output. And that output does not, by my numbers so far, seem to have much correlation to her own size.
My smaller, 1115 - 1250 lb cows are not as impressive to look at as the bigger ones but seem in the end to produce calves that are actually better than the big, flashy cows' calves.
So do I cull my "best looking" cows???? What is wrong with my new-to-cattle, engineers' logic here???? Here is a picture of #77 which is my heaviest cow but ended up with a really middle of the pack yearling steer. (website would not let me upload photo for some reason - this is the one in my avatar)
I appreciate any comments suggestions, different ways of looking at this side of the "cow size" question. Jim