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Ranchers.net
I asked this question in a different post but didn't get much response. Most cows are at their peak production at 5 to 8 years of age, give or take I suppose. As they age, their calves wean off lighter because of the cows inability to produce milk like she used to among other reasons. Her calves still have the same genetic make up as long as she keeps having calves so even though they may be lighter at weaning they still have the genetic ability to gain and grow when they get on better feed at weaning. If you background your calves shouldn't those calves have a better chance of catching up to the rest of the herd with compensatory gain when they get the nutrition that they need. And if that is true maybe it would be a good idea to keep those old cows in production as long as they are sound because they have already paid for their keep unlike younger cows. At what point do you pull the plug on those old grannies.
Her calf at 6 years old is the same genetically as her calf at 15 years old.
If you sell your calves at weaning I can see where that stategy might not work the best but if you figured the cost of raising or buying replacements maybe it would still pencil out up to a point.