Reproduction

For most spring-calving beef producers, your herd is either calving now or will start to calve soon. Hopefully this article catches you before calving starts so you actually have time to read it – I know how busy this time of year can be. But as your calves start to come, I want you to have a metric in the back of your mind: calving distribution.

From Southern Cattle Co. in Marianna, Florida, to Raven Angus in Colome, South Dakota, and everyone and everywhere between, seedstock producers across the nation are gearing up for their annual production sales.

Gene editing is helping the bovine world make leaps and bounds through genetic improvement. You may have heard of the success story of the world’s first gene-edited polled calf. Another on the list of possibilities is resistance to bovine tuberculosis.

As producers evaluate their bull battery and prepare for the winter bull sale circuit, it is useful to consider the importance of selection indexes on both sides of a mating in herd improvement plans.

Whether we are watching an NCBA Cattlemen to Cattlemen episode covering a successful commercial operation or reading about a well-established, multigenerational seedstock operation, one management practice seems to be a common thread for success: culling.

By this time of year, breeding season is well underway, and summer is winding down. Between haying and harvesting, there isn’t much time left in the day to manage the cow herd, besides checking water troughs and rotating pastures.