Herd age

[George]

With the drought I culled pretty hard several years ago and again last year.

As I was geting my calf tags ready I happened to notice I have 6 cows ( out of 18 ) born in 2004 and nothing any older.

I think this is probably the youngest over all average I have ever had - - - I sold a 1993 model and a 1994 model last fall after weaning as they had bred back late and were starting to look old to boot - - - I feel much better to get what I could then as I could lose them.

 

[gcreekrch]

16% older than 6 years. 40% 1st and 2nd calvers.

 

[Silver]

16% older than 6 years. 40% 1st and 2nd calvers.

Very close to the same here Gcreek.

 

[Andy]

thinking of selling everythin over 4 but a few really good ones. I can swap to heifer for $200 and save some feed.

 

[PureCountry]

I'm trying to get our herd average younger, but we have a few old gals that keep cranking out barn burners, and when they hit teenage years and still do it, why get rid of them? Have a real good set of heifers coming up from the Australian Galloway semen we imported, and I can't wait to see how they do on grass over the summer. I plan to sell a package of pairs this summer to make room for more of these new genetics. Overall I'd say the average age of our herd right now is about 8.

 

[Galloway2]

Our Galloway herd is made up of:

40% over 9 years
22.5% 4-8 years
37.5% 2-3 years

We sold many replacement heifers to new breeders during the 2006-2009
years.

 

[Soapweed]

Here is a breakdown of our cows' ages:

20% 2 year olds (born in 2011)
15% 3 year olds (born in 2010)
17% 4 year olds (born in 2009)
11% 5 year olds (born in 2008)
01% 6 year olds (born in 2007)
09% 7 year olds (born in 2006)
17% 8 year olds (born in 2005)
07% 9 year olds (born in 2004)
No 10 year old cows
03% 11 year olds (born in 2002)

I think this adds up to 100%. :wink:

One of the reasons there are "holes" in the herd, is that sometimes we sell young cows
when bred heifers are not overly saleable. Just this past fall, the bred heifers we sold only
averaged $1320, so we kept deeper into the heifers and sold coming four-year-old cows for $1700.

 

[MN Farm Girl]

Our herd of 25 commercial red and black angus are for the majority younger than 2008. Our two oldest cowsd happen to be 2008 models, the rest are mainly 2009-2011. And there will be 6 2012 models added here in May. We have kept a very high cull rate and slowly got rid of all of our old cows and just focus on the younger cows that are in their more productive years of 3-7. It works for us so I guess we'll just keep doing it.