Herd and Ranch Improvement / KPI

[Dega Moo]

What objective measures are you using to manage/improve your herd or ranch? What are you trying to manage with those KPI? Any stories to go with those efforts?

I'm interested in all management measures but I was really struck in a different frothy thread when someone said - paraphrased - 'you can improve the consistency of your herd or calves'. I got to wondering what does it mean to improve consistency of your herd? How would one objectively measure consistency in order to improve consistency?

So what measures do you track in order to track continuously your progress toward reaching your ranch goals and objectives?

 

[Jogeephus]

Used to concern myself with having uniform a group to fill the trailer. Trailers loads are no longer an option after I downsizing so it really doesn't matter. I care less about how they do beside the next one but I do like a good live calf weaning percentage. For some reason a live calf fetches more than a dead one so that is my key performance indicator I care about.

 

[john250]

lbs sold/yr.

 

[backhoeboogie]

$ per cow per year.

10 1/2 month calving intervals. (fertility).

What Jogee said about mortality. I don't lose many.

 

[HDRider]

I am a student, not a practitioner. When I become a cattle man, here is what I plan to measure:

a. Average Sale Weight by Class of Animal
b. Weaned Calf-crop Percentage
c. Live Birth Percentage
d. Unassisted Birth Percentage
e. Pregnancy Percentage / Rate
f. Yearling Gain – Average Daily Gain by Month
g. Carcass Data (For consumer sales)

 

[cow pollinater]

For me it's native cows that know the country and can use it without falling apart... Sounds a lot simpler than it is.
Most of my cows are black as I bought what is available when I stocked my places and my problem with that is the trend in angus towards a framey cow with a lot of milk so I've switched to red angus/brangus as there is less emphasis on milk there.

 

[Jessica06]

Pregnancy rate, mature cow size, and evenness of the calves in both weight and type.