Cow/Calf producers gathered on December 6th for the third session of the Beef Production Audit Series. Beef cow reproduction was the topic of the day.
Dr. George Perry, SDSU Extension beef specialist, was one of the featured speakers. Dr. Perry focused on the understanding of reproductive efficiency within the cowherd. There are several measures of efficiency within reproduction. He explained that pregnancy rates are how many animals become pregnant per a day during the breeding season. Calving rate was defined as how many animals calve per a day of the calving season.
In addition, he highlighted that past data has shown that 33% of the total numbers of cows are culled from the herd due to failure to become pregnant (Table 1). The average age of 15.6% of the cattle culled was less than 5 years-of-age and 31.8% were 5 to 9 years old, showing the importance for producers to focus on cowherd longevity to improve operational profits. Dr. Perry then presented research and information on estrus synchronization and reproductive management to help improve reproductive efficiency.
Dr. Perry was joined by Robin Salverson, the cow-calf field specialist from SDSU Extension’s Lemmon Regional Extension Center. Robin spoke on replacement heifer development. Within Robin’s talk, research from the SDSU experiment station near Buffalo, SD was shared. They found that heifers that were developed on range pasture from weaning to breeding typically will outperform the confinement heifers.
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