As we look toward 2015, it may be well to step back and consider a few elements of management in your cattle business. I suggest five elements that may be useful to consider now for success in 2015.
These five elements are:
1. Keep purchased feed inputs down.
2. Keep calves alive.
3. Use high-quality bulls.
4. Have a sound marketing plan for when and where to market your calves.
5. Cash in on low-producing and non-producing cows.
Keep purchased feed inputs down
In times of high cattle prices, there may be a tendency to pay less attention to input costs. With the heavy rainfall in many parts of cow country during 2014, there is likely more grazeable winter forage than has been the case during the recent past.
Even though the quality of this forage may be lower than typical, with abundant forage available for grazing, cows have the ability to select a higher-quality diet than first thought.
Therefore, the need for heavy amounts of supplementation will perhaps be less. Careful evaluation and monitoring of cow body condition will enable good decisions to balance between adequate nutrition for reproductive success and not spending more than necessary on purchased feed.
Keep calves alive
During the last half of 2014, calves were frequently worth $1,500 or more per head. Thus, the impact of even one missing calf at sale time is tremendous.
As cow-calf producers move into calving season through the spring, you should be certain you have adequate facilities and manpower to assure that a high percentage of the calves born make it all the way to sale date.
Hopefully, the advantages of genetic control of birthweight and calving ease have already been built into your cow management programs, and the risk of calving difficulty is low.
Even so, keeping a close watch on cows and heifers during calving is a wise practice any time, but particularly with $1,500 calves at stake.
In addition, with the ever-present risk of extreme weather events present, it is also good practice to keep an eye on weather forecasts and have a plan for dealing with unexpected storms or severe weather during the calving period.
Late spring and early fall weather can be unpredictable, and we don’t need to look far in the past to see what devastation a severe weather event can bring.
Use high-quality bulls
For producers that retain their own replacements, more than 85 percent of the genes present in their females came from the last three generations of bulls used in their herds.
Today, we have highly predictive estimates of the genetic merit of bulls with high-accuracy genomic-enhanced EPDs available, even in yearling bulls.
As you move into 2015 and make plans for bull purchases, it is good practice to consider how the bulls you select can be used to complement the cow herd you currently have.
Take a look into the future and consider how the bulls you use in 2015 will impact the replacement females you will put back into your herd and the calves you wean in 2016.
It may also be prudent to consider if A.I. may be right for you if you have not previously used A.I. as a component of your cow-calf program. Advancements in timed-A.I. programs have come a long way in recent years.
This may be a year to incorporate A.I. into your overall herd management system to incorporate the genes from highly proven A.I. sires that have the specific traits you need for your herd.
Have a sound marketing plan for when and where to market your calves
Traditionally, cow-calf producers have been “price takers” rather than “price setters.” Reputation cattle have always been sought after by cattle buyers. Current and evolving marketing avenues have made receiving added value from your management program even more available to cow-calf producers than was the case years ago.
The advent of satellite and Internet marketing as a complement to local sale-barn opportunities enables more buyers in the market and thereby enhances selling calves based on reputation and predictability.
Cash in on low-producing and non-producing cows
The low cattle inventory in the U.S. and the demand for U.S. beef has pushed the value of cows for harvest to record-high price levels. It is not uncommon for high-dressing cows to bring up to $1,600 per head, depending on cow weight and fleshiness.
With such prices available for low-producing and non-producing cows, it is hard to pass these prices up. This is also one way to maintain cash flow when needed.
I recognize that the cost of replacing females is also high in current markets, yet removing low-producing and non-producing cows while their value is high may provide an opportunity to improve the overall quality of the cow herd by weeding out unproductive cows and focusing on replacing them with more useful females.
Summary
Niels Bohr, 1922 Nobel laureate in physics, is quoted as saying, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” I’d be foolish to predict that 2015 will continue with as high of prices for cattle as have occurred in 2014, but many signs point in that direction.
Even if prices soften in the next year, I believe that the five elements for cow-calf success I have outlined in this article are sound and will assist producers with meeting their 2015 business objectives. 
Beginning June 1, 2014, Dr. Whittier left Colorado State University as beef extension specialist where he had been for almost 20 years. He joined the University of Nebraska as District Director of the Panhandle District and the Panhandle Research and Extension Center. He is now located in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. He is also a professor in the animal science department at the University of Nebraska.
- Jack C. Whittier
- District Director
- University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center
