It is my observation that Nature brings young into the world during times of abundant feed sources.
RobertMac, abundant perhaps, but not peak. If you study any FWP research, we know that animals born early enough in the season to be the oldest w/o having been killed by weather are favored for 1st Winter survival. Early, but not too early. Later born animals are at a distinct disadvantage. Mother Nature tends to naturally flush the females for a big burst, then they peter out.
I believe, ideally calving should be timed close to, but prior to peak forage.
Nature doesn't really suggest this, Robert. I'll agree from a nutrient management standpoint for MAN's cow, but not for nature. Peak forage occurs here in NY in another couple weeks, but the geese and deer are already over 2 months old. That is nearly 1/4 of a year before peak.
Lets the cow improve condition on early forage growth...then post calving, she has abundant feed to raise the calf, recover from calving and start to cycle to rebreed.
Agreed. I'm not so sure the animals in my area are at their peak fatness or even gaining too much before birthing, though.
The cows number one job is to have a calf and rebreed to have another calf the next year.
Exactly that is the cow's job, and from the Ma Nature perspective with wild animals, getting pregnant is more important than actually producing offspring over the long haul. Think about it. Deer/elk/antelope will all voluntarily slough offspring to make it through a Winter. Birds will sacrifice an early hatch for the opportunity to have them as early as possible. I think so many times that one person says something and the rest of us agree w/o really thinking about it. Many people also don't consider than the animals they are modelling after all have shorter gestation and are generally Autumn breeders (except for Bison). And those Autumn breeders are all breeding after the Fall rains produced more high nutrient forage. Again, they breed when they should first, when they fawn is secondary. Remember how Ma Nature flushed the females? In these late calving systems, there is no flushing going on when breeding on August grass.
Doing that around peak forage is efficient and economical.
I think this is what the low cost guys say. They may be right, but they are out of sync with Nature IMO. Possibly rightly so, but still out of sync. The simple point is that they should talk about economics, rather than relying on the "greenie, hippie" points. Economical, I would agree. Efficient, I'm not convinced of that.
Down side is that the calf might not weigh as much at weaning, but if you save enough on the front end(not feeding a nursing cow in the winter), the bottom line should still be better.
According to our pricing structure, yes. In the full market model, it would depend on how nutritional stress played into affecting the growth and maturity curve and it's effects on quality.
RobertMac, not at all disagreeing with your point of view or picking you apart, just kicking out ideas for thought or discussion or showing you how I think about the points. I'm sure you'll understand that. Most of the ideas really just look at the question of "mimicing Nature or making economic decisions". Those are distinctly different points that have become intertwined in the grass based circles, in my opinion.
These points are NOT about being right or wrong in the sense of anyone being a better manager than anyone else, but about thinking about the biology behind what we do as stewards of our resources. Totally about thinking and learning, rather than the measuring stick of being "right" or "wrong".
Badlands
