12 minute read
culling Strategies
When feed is short, ranchers often choose to reduce herd numbers rather than buy expensive hay, but there are ways to cull wisely. Sometimes there are several options and strategies that might help you get through the drought with the least negative impact on your herd genetics. Each ranch situation is unique, however, and what works for one operation may be less feasible for another.
Travis Olson, at Ole Farms Athabasca, Alberta, says the general rule of thumb is to try to cull hardest or reduce numbers in the classes of cattle that won’t hurt you in the long term. “In our operation we take a lot of cattle to finish. In a drought situation, the first group to be gone is the yearling steers. Then we look at the cow herd. How you cull the cows may depend on when your breeding season is. If you are calving in March, and facing a drought that summer, you could ultrasound those cows 60 days into the breeding season (or when you pull bulls), identify your open cows and sell them early,” he says.
Advertisement
“Sometimes you might decide to get them into a feedlot and put some gain on them before you sell them. We’ve been doing that for several years. It depends on the time of year. If you are moving cows out in October-November, that’s usually when the market is lowest. Typically a good marketing time for cull cows is April through August. If it’s just a regional drought, you can market between May and August and still get pretty good value for them. The next year if you have more grass you can repopulate—either buy more cows or keep more heifers,” he says.
“Most commercial producers don’t have production records (what each individual cow is doing) to aid them in culling decisions. Some things are obvious, such as a cow that is temperamental or has a bad udder or bad feet. This is a good opportunity to get rid of those, and if you have production records you can cull even harder, getting rid of poor producers,” says Olson.
“If you have to make culling decisions and don’t have production records to guide you, many people cull an older cow and keep the younger ones with more life ahead of them,” he says.
“Another thing a person can do, to find the ones that might be slow breeders or poor producers is to run all the cows through the chute (perhaps at the same time you are doing spring vaccinations) and put heat-detection patches on them. Let’s say you are calving in May-June and realize you are entering a massive drought and need to sell some cows early. The bulls won’t be turned out with the cows until late July, but if it’s getting close to the end of June put a heat patch on the cows. Then you can tell which ones have started to cycle. You can keep those—and eliminate the ones that haven’t cycled yet.”
This enables you to keep the fertile, healthy ones that will breed early, and these also tend to be the most productive cows. “A heat patch is only about $1 (at your local supply store or ordered from your AI tech) and can be a cheap way to identify the best cows. If 30% of them are not cycling yet, pick the culls you need to get rid of from that 30%. You can pick the older cows, the ones with bad disposition, poor udders, etc. from that group,” he explains.
If a cow is cycling 30 days before the bull is turned in, she will likely breed early. “The other thing you’ll notice when you use those patches is that the cows that aren’t cycling yet are the late calvers. At our place, cows with calves born the end of June are more likely to not be showing signs of estrus yet. Those cows with small young calves might be some you’d sell as pairs to someone who has more grass,” he says.
“If you are forced to sell something, there are ways to prioritize culling. There’s no magic solution, but there are several things a person can look at to decide which cows to eliminate. You can be hard on your heifers, too, but heifers are eating only about 60% what the cows are. You can keep more heifers for the same amount of feed,” he says.
“That might be one of the easy decisions; keep more heifers and cull harder on the older cows and the ones that aren’t cycling yet,” he says.
The cows that are slow to cycle are usually not your best cows. “When we go to AI breed, the ones that don’t have their patches rubbed yet have lower conception rate, and their calves aren’t nearly as good either, the following year. If they don’t have enough fat to cycle, they don’t have enough fat the following year to produce very well. By selecting the cows that calve early, you have better calves. Some people make a big deal about how much better their AI calves are than the non-AI calves. Even if you adjust for age, often the cow that cycled earlier has a better calf just because she has the building blocks and the ability to get bred early and milk heavier.
“I don’t think most people realize the impact on calf weights due to the difference between the cows that cycle early and the ones that don’t. If they are not cycling, they are not in optimum health. If they are not healthy they are not going to raise the best calf. Thus the cows that are not cycling early are the number one thing I’d look for when making culling decisions, aside from the obvious bad udders, etc.” says Olson.
Putting a patch on every cow and waiting 20 days to see which ones have cycled is a low cost tool. You can run 100 cows through and put a patch on them within an hour, or do it when branding and vaccinating.
Bruce Viney, Risk Management Specialist, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry says the best culling decisions vary from year to year because cattle prices are not predictable. “Even though prices tend to go up in the summer, they don’t always. Knowing your cost of production is crucial. Even though you might have lots of feed, this doesn’t mean you should put it into old cows. You might be better off to keep it for calves,” he says.
“If you have older cull cows that will bring the lower end of the price range, you might not want to spend much on feed to try to get them heavier. Sometimes you are better off to just sell them. On the other hand, if the open cows are good young heifers that lost calves, they are worth more and you can afford to spend a little more to get them ready to sell and put together a load. Sometimes there’s a good market for heiferettes if they have the potential to grade better.”
Everyone wants to hit the peak market, but that’s hard to do. “There is a seasonal tendency for higher prices in summer, but it costs feed and overhead to hold cull cows over winter and get those cows into that market. If you have cheap feed and the facilities to do it, you can make money, but there is always some risk in holding cows.”
He has had cattle himself, andculled cows on many things besides whether or not they are open. “If they have bad feet, bad udders, bad attitudes, we got rid of them,” says Viney. You want cattle that are functionally sound, user-friendly, that won’t put you or your family at risk, or make more work for you.
“We are lucky that we have markets nearby and don’t need a full load to justify the transportation cost. If a cow gave us a problem we got rid of her,” says Viney. There are many reasons to cull and you don’t want to regret not sending one to market that you should have.
“Every producer has a notebook or record-keeping system. When a cow calves, note if she has a bad udder or was wild/aggressive and needs to be on the cull list. Come fall, however, when she has a big calf and she’s quieted down or her udder doesn’t look so bad, and she’s bred again, it is easy to lose our resolve about selling her—and decide to keep her one more year, rather than acting on our earlier decision,” he says.
“You are tired in the spring, and frustrated, working long hours during calving, and have a nice cull list. Then you soften in the fall. You don’t stop to consider the extra costs of production involved with those animals—the fact that this wild cow might break out and you’ll have to fix fence, or she might hurt someone, or you might have more labor involved if she has a bad udder,” Viney says.
“Keeping a bunch of cull cows longer to put more weight on them is not just the feed you put into them. The feed has a value. You could sell it or use it for something else,” he says. All factors need to be weighed when making these decisions.
Congdon Wedding - September 4th, 2021
We really couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate our marriage with our family and friends. It was everything country with a vintage boho vibe. From coming in on a horse drawn carriage, which was a dream come true, to doing a branding unity ceremony - that entailed our new brand which incooperates parts of both our families brands into our own. And of course, we made sure to include our cows in our wedding photos as they are an important part of our lives. It really was a perfect day and went without a hitch! We are excited to start this journey as Mr & Mrs. Cody & Melissa Congdon
Jaime Davidson and her 4H heifer DRT Lonesome Cass 88H.
At the Mankota 4H Beef Show on June 6, 2021, she won Grand Champion Female and Grand Champion Purebred Heifer.
At the Swift Current Frontier Days Regional 4H Show on July 2, 2021, Jaime won Champion Gelbvieh Heifer and Reserve Grand Champion Heifer Overall Breeds.
Jaime along with her brothers, Ash and Cameron are all part of the Mankota 4H Beef Club.
In the spirit of sibling dynamics, the boys had nice home-raised Gelbvieh steers too.
Magazines
Services British Columbia
Alberta
Kelly & Coleen Brittain, Gary & Nicole
780-387-6446 britt4@xplornet.com RR #1, Falun, AB T0C 1H0
Purebred & Percentage GELBVIEH CATTLE
Auctioneers / Sales Management
United States Breeders
Darrell & Leila Hickman RR 1, Sundre, AB T0M 1X0 Ph: 780-581-4510 darrell.ddhickman@gmail.com
Alberta
NELSON GELBVIEH
Duane & Linda Nelson
Box 1144, Glenwood, Alberta T0K 2R0 (403) 626-3279 “Raising Gelbvieh Cattle Since 1972!”
www.lcranchbulls.com
LC RANCH
Purebred Gelbvieh Ray & Anne Davisson Box 764, Stettler, AB T0C 2L0 403.741.4488 • 403.323.0233 lcranch@xplornet.com rdavisson@cervusequipment.com
HAROLD - 780.835.3065 BEV - 780.834.7704 www.milneranch.com
GELBVIEH CATTLE SINCE 1972 QUARTER HORSES SINCE 1985
Don & Lorna Okell Box 627 Duchess, AB T0J 0Z0 403-378-4898 403-793-4549 jenty@eidnet.org www.jentygelbviehs.com
Alberta
GR Bar GR Cattle PUREBRED GELBVIEH FEMALES
RON & GAIL ANDERSON
Phone (780) 523-2116 Fax: (780) 523-3920 gailanderson@hotmail.com Box 1342 High Prairie, Alberta Canada , T0G 1E0
Chuck & Jennifer Williams 403-854-6270 403-854-0190 Hanna, AB flatlandranching@gmail.com www.flatlandranch.com
Saskatchewan
Manitoba
The Wirgau’s
Box 25, Narcisse, MB R0C 2H0
Lee & Cynthia (204) 278-3255
Neal & Christine (204) 981-5996 World Class Cattle - First Class Service Larry, Lynne, Kate & Sarah FECHO RR #2 Millet, AB T0C 1Z0 Phone: (780) 986-9705 Cell: (780) 718-5477 www.evgelbvieh.com
Knudson Farms Gelbvieh
“Breeding for Quality Polled Gelbvieh With the Commercial Man in Mind”
