Rydero makes a valid point on deferring income and/or incurring debt to increase the head per acre volume without an appreciable increase
in total pounds of beef marketed. This can be exceedingly difficult for a one faceted operation. ie cow/calf only, no other income..
There is no tablet carved in stone on how to go about making the change but you will need to reinvent your own wheel(s) as you proceed.
For starters the mature weight of your herd sire will be a great influence on the size of your replacement heifers. Couple mature weight and frame
size and the problem (or solution) will increase or be resolved in direct proportion. Admittedly I started too late in life and with no idea
or intention of changing cow size. Anyway I wound up with a couple of $200. masterpieces that took shelter on my place from the county
sherriff with shoot to kill orders. (That is a fact) I made sure that when I drove into the area where they were that they were going to find
a little pile of corn. Long story short it worked, they made it through the winter and had calves, maybe 40 lbs. [The faint of heart can get off now,]
The calves were heifers and they had calves (mostly heifers) After about 12 years I get calves that will scale between 850 & 900 in eleven
months for steers and proportionly less for heifers. I have never pulled a calf or lost one for health reasons.
I stopped buying bulls base on weaning and year weight EPD's. Started reading Grassland Farmer, that lead me to Kit Pharo with whom
I have communicated but never met.. Along with this I started rotational grazing within the confines of my patience and endurance for moving
cattle almost daily through the grazing season. I would have to look but I know it's something over a 100 times a season for the past couple
of years.. To back up for a moment I did mention keeping the calves for eleven months.. To me that is important in that the calf is the only
income a cow is going to produce in a year unless you sell the cow! To me selling a calf at weaning or at a light weight is tantamount
to having a hired man who does no work. Bottom line unless you can handle the necessary changes in procedures and attitude required
to make the change I would not recommend it. Once the quality of pasture increases the rate of gain per acre will follow.
All things being equal and they never are,,,,,,,