Brandonm22":25vx2p09 said:
Without rough date of birth data in a calving year round system in a 100 cow herd a cow could calve every 16 months and wean a 380 pound calf and she probably never gets identified as a money loser.
Rough dates are not a problem. Exacting dates is what would result in a WAG at times. Especially when the cow hides one off in the brush.
In December some steers were hauled to the pasture at the house and some heifers returned to the pasture. In that three hour period I was gone, a cow had calved and I mistook that calf as another cow's because it was so dark. If I had not happened to have returned that ngiht, I would have thought the calf came on the following day. The cow calved 10 months and 3 weeks since her last calving.
Several calve on 11 months intervals. If the bull is not left with the cows full time, that neighbor's angus bull discussed earlier would be breeding them.
If you only have one pasture and one group of cows, exact dates would be much easier to discern.
If you bring them all to a feed lot to work them, you can get a good count. If I sent three of ya'll out right now to count cows on the river side, I'd get three different answers. Some are going to be on the lower flood plain and others will be on the upper flood plain. Some will be in the brush in between or else laid up in the brush on the hill. When they are moved to the pastures across the road, accurate counts will be much simpler.
If #133 calves the first week of March, and she calves the follow year on mid February, you are under that 16 months you are discussing.
I have not lost a calf since the fall calving started in September. I can tell you the calving dates on each cow within two days. Most I can tell the exact day, but there is no point in telling a lie when it comes to exact calving dates. I cannot be in every pasture at once, there is fence to build, hay to put up, fertilizer to spread, pastures to mow etc.
I am only spread out 20 miles but there are folks with many more head than me and spread much further. They are highly successful and I consider them very good managers.