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To pass, 60 percent must calve in 21 days

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BeefTalk: To pass, 60 percent must calve in 21 days

Kris Ringwall, North Dakota State University Extension | Updated: 05/10/2013



As the calving season winds down, check the calving book. Count the number of cows that calved within 21 days from when the third mature cow calved. After that, check the number that calved the next 21 days and the next 21 days. Keep counting until you get to the end of the calving book.

Why? The No. 1 one indicator - let me repeat - the No. 1 indicator that the cows within a cattle operation fit the managerial program is timely reproduction. In other words, they calve on time.

The type of cattle operation is not important, nor is when the calving season is set. What is important is that at least 60 percent of the mature cows expected to calve do so within 21 days of the start of the calving season.

Why 60 percent? The average percent for cows calving within 21 days for those North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement producers enrolled in the CHAPS program through the NDSU Extension Service is 61 percent. Why not at least be average?

Any excuse that allows for poor reproductive performance within the cow herd will mean increased costs and a decreased output of beef.

To go to the next 21 days, a total of 86 percent of the mature cows should have calved within the 42-day calving window. As a cattle producer, if you meet the percentage, continue as is or tweak your managerial thoughts to try to improve.

If one really wants a challenge, try to cut replacement and culling rates for the herd. Although a replacement rate of 15 percent is typical, try to cut it to 10 percent. There always are new concepts for managing cows, but few cattle producers actually achieve a reduction in replacement rate.

Back to evaluating calving dates. If less than 60 percent of the mature cows are calving within the first 21 days, a major re-evaluation of one's managerial protocols needs to be considered.

The first point that is noted will be nutrition because it ultimately determines reproduction. However, increasing nutritional inputs carries a cost, so cow genetics needs to be evaluated at the same time.

Are the cows the right ones to match the available resources or nutrition? Most cow herds are developed on-site and are a product of generations of cow families that have successfully adapted to the ranch. Buying cow herds and moving them often will end in failure. This not only fails but also generates more expenses that ultimately become difficult to pay back.

The industry often used to move cattle to find nutrition. It was a production system essentially based on Longhorn cattle. History books are the best source for that information.
 
Should a 42 day calving be the aim of all ranchers? Does everyone have the right adapted genetics to be able to select for a short breeding season/cow longevity within their environment?
 
We do a 42-45 day period and aim for 80-85% on cows and heifers on the first cycle. I takes a lot of culling the first few years and a good mineral program, but very attainable.
 
We do the same as Aaron, without grain or silage, just grass, hay and mineral. Nutrition is every bit as important as the genetics, and the soil quality plays huge into the nutrition. If you can't grow good feed you have to be supplementing to expect them to perform any better than the local wildlife.
 
I agree about the short calving period. But why do I never see any articles about bulls on this topic. Everyone has a different opinion on how many bulls one needs but I never see any studies on it. If you have a 42 day breeding period most all would only cycle twice. If its hot and dry and the cows are spread all over the pasture when they do graze. The number of cows to bulls would drastically change how successful you are in hitting the calving window. How would a person be making genetic progress by not keeping a certain heifer because her mom was open since the bulls didn't find her when she did cycle. Don't get me wrong there isn't any excuse to keep and open cow. I just think the bull power side of this is very important but you never hear about that.
 
According to the late Dr. Diven the farther north in latitude you are the easier it is to get a cow to catch. (not the only factor) I think on the bull side there are many who imho use more bull to cow ratio than is necessary. 45 days on the cows and 25 to 30 on the hfs has worked good here for years. Seldom less than 75% using the above criteria and often better. Having said that what we should really be rating is cows exposed to calves weaned.
 
Personally, I think too much emphasis is put on something that is relatively inconsequential in the general scheme of things. What difference does it really make if you get done calving in 42 days, 45 days, 60 days, or horror-of-horrors in 90 days? On normal non-drought years, a cow with a late calf in the spring is generally far more valuable than she would have been had she been sold as an empty weigh-up cow the fall before. Out of the last fifteen cows to calve one spring on our ranch, twelve of those cows were in the first third to calve the following spring. Had these fifteen cows been sold as opens, or as "late-calvers," we'd have missed out on the good calves these cows were to have in the future. Sometimes, it seems by being too thoroughly brilliant, we just outsmart ourselves. :roll: :wink:
 
Soapweed said:
Personally, I think too much emphasis is put on something that is relatively inconsequential in the general scheme of things. What difference does it really make if you get done calving in 42 days, 45 days, 60 days, or horror-of-horrors in 90 days? On normal non-drought years, a cow with a late calf in the spring is generally far more valuable than she would have been had she been sold as an empty weigh-up cow the fall before. Out of the last fifteen cows to calve one spring on our ranch, twelve of those cows were in the first third to calve the following spring. Had these fifteen cows been sold as opens, or as "late-calvers," we'd have missed out on the good calves these cows were to have in the future. Sometimes, it seems by being too thoroughly brilliant, we just outsmart ourselves. :roll: :wink:
Click to expand...


:agree:
 
Soapweed said:
Personally, I think too much emphasis is put on something that is relatively inconsequential in the general scheme of things. What difference does it really make if you get done calving in 42 days, 45 days, 60 days, or horror-of-horrors in 90 days? On normal non-drought years, a cow with a late calf in the spring is generally far more valuable than she would have been had she been sold as an empty weigh-up cow the fall before. Out of the last fifteen cows to calve one spring on our ranch, twelve of those cows were in the first third to calve the following spring. Had these fifteen cows been sold as opens, or as "late-calvers," we'd have missed out on the good calves these cows were to have in the future. Sometimes, it seems by being too thoroughly brilliant, we just outsmart ourselves. :roll: :wink:
Click to expand...
For me it is because I carry on with several other enterprises that conflict with the appropriate time and attention available for calving. I like to get it done and move on. Otherwise, on observation of a neighboring outfit that runs a year round calving program and doing the math as I watch his gather and sale of various classes of cattle as it suits him, it could very well be profitable. It just doesn't suit my personality.
 
Read a good article by Don Campbell one time that said late calves were a marketing problem, not a production problem. It makes some sense. We try to calve as a tight bunch here, more for managing pasture groups than any other reason. Those later calves we keep over and grass. They make nice cash flow and often hit a high market almost 6 months from when the rest of our calves are marketed. They usually work out pretty well.
 
It was important for us to calve in 42-45 days in order to have
a uniform bunch of calves to sell as potload of steers, since we sold to an order buyer.
When you run more cows than we were able to, you could
better justify longer calving season. Like Soapweed, the way he markets
his calves works out very well for him. We just never had enough cattle
to do as he does.

We gave our heifers 30 days and the cows 45. We got in the high 80's and
low 90's in the first cycle. We wound up with very few calves that wouldn't go on the truck.
Sometimes we had none left over to sell later. Our cows
only got grass, hay and mineral.

Once you get your cows bred up that tight, you don't have many that
fall out of the herd. And I know that what Soapweed posted about his
15 cows that were late one year and 12 bred up in the first cycle the next
year, I've seen that happen time and time again. But to read the research,
they'll tell you that won't happen.
 
3 M L & C said:
I agree about the short calving period. But why do I never see any articles about bulls on this topic. Everyone has a different opinion on how many bulls one needs but I never see any studies on it. If you have a 42 day breeding period most all would only cycle twice. If its hot and dry and the cows are spread all over the pasture when they do graze. The number of cows to bulls would drastically change how successful you are in hitting the calving window. How would a person be making genetic progress by not keeping a certain heifer because her mom was open since the bulls didn't find her when she did cycle. Don't get me wrong there isn't any excuse to keep and open cow. I just think the bull power side of this is very important but you never hear about that.
Click to expand...

Exactly I want to know how bulls this takes and are we talking 25 cows 50, 500 or 5000 cows?
 
We run 40-50 cows per bull in individual pastures, but where we used to run bigger groups of 100+ cows I go 25 cows/bull. There always ends up being jackasses who fight instead of fornicate, broken appendages, and who knows what all else?? Gotta have the bull power to get them covered.
 
Until we experienced that lovely little bug called lepto we were calving 75-80% in the first thirty days. I was also running quite a few more bulls than we are typically told we should. We AI and raise almost all of our own bulls so I don't have the expense that some have if they are going to run a low ratio. It is pretty typical to run around 20 hd per bull. I know that is a pretty low number but it seems to help with conception.
 
4Diamond said:
how can 1 bull cover 40-50 and get em breed in under 30 days?
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Cooler weather and grass in a smaller area. We've ran 70 cows with one bull before no money for a replacement. Following year we had 63 calves in the first 30 days remainder were spread out for the next 30 days.
 
We figured one bull to 25 cows as long as the bulls were 2 years old or older.
We figured one yearling bull to 15 cows and we tried to sort the bulls up
according to size and age. We didn't keep bulls over 4 years of age unless
it was an exceptional bull. We didn't have problems with bulls injuring each
other by not keeping old bulls.
 
rancherfred said:
Until we experienced that lovely little bug called lepto we were calving 75-80% in the first thirty days. I was also running quite a few more bulls than we are typically told we should. We AI and raise almost all of our own bulls so I don't have the expense that some have if they are going to run a low ratio. It is pretty typical to run around 20 hd per bull. I know that is a pretty low number but it seems to help with conception.
Click to expand...

I have heard that if you run a couple of goats with your herd they will keep lepto and those other nasties at bay. :D

Just sayin' it could be worth a try. :D

Just remember to report back to us on how it works. :lol: :lol:
 

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