“Change is easy. Transition is hard. Are you open to surrounding yourself with people who have the best knowledge and listening to them?” Nancy Charlton of DeLaval asked listeners of the “Capitalizing on robotics to enhance animal health and reproduction” panel at the 2023 Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council annual meeting.

A productive cow isn’t always a profitable cow. A profitable cow performs in milk volume and quality, breeds back quickly and experiences few health events.

The verdict is in – an open cow is among the top three financial liabilities for cow-calf operators. Calf sales are the largest contributor to annual income; cows that fail to wean a calf are a financial burden borne by the productive cows.

When thinking about lactation length and milk production, one aspect to consider is maximizing the returns to your most fixed resource on the farm. Is your most fixed resource the cow or the stall she occupies?

From gestation to the rail, there are things that will impact the calf’s success. Genetics, environment and management are among the biggest. However, before that calf is even born, their growth potential is defined by the total number of muscle fibers that develop in utero.  

In cow-calf operations, reproductive rate is the foundational productive function of the enterprise. Obviously, if cows do not become pregnant, then no calves are produced for revenue generation the following year.

Most beef producers who routinely test cows and heifers confirm pregnancies when their calves are either weaned or preconditioned in late summer. However, experts recommend checking for pregnancy much sooner, especially during a dry spell.