Glenn and Ashley Beckett, owners and operators of Beckridge Holsteins, share the five indispensable components they rely on for their success in and out of the barn. 

Feed costs for beef production are the largest expense on a ranch. There is no better time than now to start an annual plan of monitoring feed inputs, so you can know you are getting the most out of them and what is best for the animal.

Have you ever noticed in ranching that there’s “flow” and “no flow”? The days things click into place are great. Items on the to-do list get crossed off, and people and animals are happy.

Considerations and methods to develop a simple record-keeping system.

Our ability to keep good records (now data) varies tremendously – sometimes a fair bit from one day to the next.

How often has the calving book been lost or accidentally destroyed by the calf being warmed in the feeding pickup? Or when has information failed to be recorded toward the end of the calving season because our attention turns to other matters that time of year?

A well-prepared calving area with proper equipment that emphasizes safety and accessibility, ensuring proper cattle nutrition and having a solid emergency plan with detailed records to fall back on will serve you well.

Calving season is an ongoing process that can occur over a few months, rather than a single short-term event like pregnancy checking or weaning. Recording calving records provide great benefits and opportunities to collect data and details that can then be used to evaluate and rank cows in the herd.

“Big data,” a term that can be defined as enormous amounts and various types of data that can be used to analyze patterns, trends and associations, has allowed researchers to better understand how dairy cow health, growth and milk production have changed over time.