WFfarm
Well-known member
MM, compare the cows to your own herd versus other people's herds. You have to optimize your cows for the environment you are in. What works in your area is different from mine or other parts of the country. A good scale has been helpful to us. You can't manage what you can't measure. Start by ranking your herd. Average daily gain is as important as final weaned weight. Certain ones will always be at the top of the list and they are your keepers and ones you should look for replacements from. They are naturally selecting themselves for your conditions, whether it be breed mix, heat tolerance, size, quantity of milk. Most likely it will be a combination of traits. Vise versa you will find others that are always at the bottom of the list, and are your first candidates for culling. You will eventually keep raising your average weaning weights. This is our method of managing our herd of about 32 commercial cows. When Jack Welsh was the CEO of GE he had a mentality that 5% of the workforce was always getting turned over. This was natural trimming of the "dead wood".