Many spring-calving cows and calves will go through the working facilities this time of year for annual pregnancy checks and weaning vaccinations, so fall provides a good opportunity to compile data and evaluate how the production cycle went.
Especially if you retain ownership of calves for the feedlot or heifers for replacements, weaning season is a great opportunity to evaluate how well the dam did her job. While calf performance data is useful, comparison of weaning records to calving records can also help identify cows to cull or heifers to avoid transferring to the keeper pen. Likewise, evaluating cow disposition, body condition score and udder quality can help determine selection for longevity and females who thrive in the local environment.
While performance data is more commonly measured in the cow-calf setting, pasture records and management data are just as important. Fall provides a great time to evaluate and document pasture conditions, weed presence, grazing days and stocking density throughout the grazing period. Noting weather conditions will also be useful when comparing year-over-year data. Having these records may also prove useful for troubleshooting future issues that may arise. If additional feed resources such as creep feed or grain supplementation for the cows were fed, condense the bills to determine how much was fed throughout the grazing period and assess the cost per pair.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Therefore, documentation is necessary to track long-term progress being made in the beef cow enterprise. This could be as simple as recording weights and other notes with a pen and paper or taking pictures to document pasture conditions. The use of a phone app or computer spreadsheet or program are also effective ways to analyze yearly records. Many producers will utilize a combination of these resources, including pen and paper in the short run for calving records and, later, will update computer programs to benchmark data. Retaining information is a powerful tool to track progress and ensure your management decisions are reflective of the operation’s goals.
