The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) is made up of producer members from across Canada, appointed by each of the provincial beef organizations that allocate part of the Canadian Beef Cattle Check-Off to research. The number of members from each province is proportional to the amount of provincial check-off allocated to research.
The following is part of a series introducing you to this group of innovative thinkers. These producers set the BCRC’s direction by sharing practices, strategies or technologies they have integrated into their own operations. Read the past installments in this series.
Implementing changes to increase profitability, reduce labour or fit farm work around an off-farm job doesn’t happen overnight. But, is doesn’t always require big investments either. Small tweaks and creatively using resources already on your farm can add up to meaningful gains and deliver big pay offs.
Using Data and Resources Effectively
Tara Mulhern Davidson, along with her husband Ross and their four children, own and operate Lonesome Dove Ranch, a large commercial cow-calf and seedstock operation south of Ponteix, Saskatchewan. They raise both purebred Gelbvieh and commercial Gelbvieh-cross cattle, selling feeder steers, replacement heifers and some direct-to-consumer beef. The ranch also exports cattle genetics and live animals across North America and around the world, co-hosting an annual bull sale with family.
The Davidsons calve the majority of their herd in February and March and sort cattle as they are calving into groups for pasture turnout. Cows usually go to pasture in May, and Tara points out that their operation is “very spread out, so while our headquarters are south of Ponteix, we can have cattle 40 minutes away from us in any direction, and this is reflected in some of our management decisions.”
Data-Driven Decisions Through Record-Keeping
Tara is a long-time advocate of digital record-keeping and was an early adopter of online herd management tools. For more than 16 years, she’s used online cattle management software to track animal health, performance, treatments, maternal lineage and reproductive data. Tara has found that having this data is valuable for day-to-day management decisions.
“If someone is out riding through calves and gives one a treatment, they can record it immediately,” she explains. “The next day if someone completely different is out there riding through, they can look the calf up and know that they have already been treated.”
They also find value in having years of data in the system. Being able to look up any animal and know not only her information, but also the information about her offspring over several years has helped in decision making.
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