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Are Your Cows Efficient Enough

Feb 13, 2014

With the prospects of better calf prices this year, the cow-calf industry is facing the possibility of future profits. Efficiency, refining production output and costs, within the cow herd becomes more important as owners seek to expand profit margins.
 
The following are points that are important in increasing the overall efficiency of a cow herd:

Overall efficiency of a cow herd is dependent on the match of the cow’s biological type with the environment that they are placed into. Cows need to fit the environment, which to the greatest extent is based on what the producer believes is necessary as good care. Climate and feed resources are also factors that can affect the type of cow herd; however, these factors don’t play as big a part as a care giver does.

Within any group of similar cows, there is variation in their ability to convert plant energy into animal energy. Some cows are genetically more able to accomplish their job on less feed. Conversely, some cows genetically need more feed in order to do their job of raising calves each year. Research is currently underway to further develop the concept known as Residual Feed Intake (RFI) or net feed efficiency. Because of the complexity in measuring RFI, this concept first became available to the cattle industry through bull test stations. Similar to any other traits, bulls are being identified for their RFI, and buyers can use this traits as another factor when bidding. Because RFI is reasonably heritable, this feature can be passed onto the daughters.

Cow milking ability is a major factor that establishes the nutrient requirements at any given time of year. Cows that milk less have lower feed requirements.

The change in nutrient requirement does not change as quickly as cow size. A 2000 lb cow does not eat twice as much as a 1000 lb cow. Rather, feed requirements change with an animal’s metabolic weight rather than the live weight. The metabolic weight is achieved by multiplying the live weight by the .75 power.

The size of the cow isn’t as important as is her long-term compatibility to her environment.

Although large cows in a herd can be as productive relative to their body size as small cows, it is not as likely. That’s because it’s easier to be a lazy large cow than to be a lazy small cow. The manager is quicker to notice that the little cow of the herd is lazy as her calf is just plain small. The larger cow can be as lazy as the small cow, but her calf will still fit in with the other calves.

Although poor keeping cows cull themselves through infertility, the poor performing cows don’t have a biological method for culling themselves except through the scrutiny of the cow owner. The tool for culling is much more subjective and sometimes less observant. The only certain way to correct this is to individually weigh the calves in the fall and to correlate this with the actual weight of the cow.

The degree of tolerance to poor efficiency is largely based on economics. The relationship between feed prices and calf prices will determine how inefficient cows can get yet still be profitable.

Source: Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development