Cow Size...What Does it Cost?

We’re gearing up for winter here on the farm. That means feeding weaned calves, ensuring our equipment is ready to run in cold temps to put out hay, and planning for our genetics that will be hitting the ground this spring.

There were many thoughts that ran through our mind as we considered AI mating for our cows this summer. Firstly, we want calves that are born without difficulty. Being we work full-time jobs off the farm, we’re not always around when one of our cows go into labor. We try to watch them as closely as possible, but being present for every birth just isn’t feasible. That’s the goal, one day, for sure; but, right now, the cows don’t quite fund themselves. With that in mind, we take a look at BW (birth weight) and CE (calving ease) EPD’s (estimated progeny differences). We also know the size of our cows and what size calf they’re able to deliver easily and make a decision factoring in all of these things.

One thing we’ve been considering, most recently, is the cost effectiveness of having large bodied animals on the farm. By basic physiology, a larger animal requires a larger amount of forage/feed to maintain than that of a smaller frame. Being we’ve delved into the realm of rotational grazing and stock piling pastures, the average size of our cows in the herd bears looking into. Obviously, in the cattle industry, more pounds equal more money. However, what does it cost to raise a calf that has a higher ME (maintenance energy) than that of a small calf with a better percentile in ME?

This is something we’re going to be looking more into and doing the calculations as we grow the most recently weaned calf crop. This past summer, we invested in a digital scale that has allowed us to measure ADG (average daily gain) in our feed lot, but we also used this scale to weigh calves and momma’s at weaning. We used that data to calculate what percentage of the cow’s bodyweight that she weaned her calf. Surprisingly, the heaviest calves and mommas weren’t the ones who had the best performance. Instead, it was our moderate/smaller framed cows who grew the most efficient, highest percentile calves. Most of these calves will be heading into the feedlot to be part of our freezer/USDA beef project. We will hold a select number of bulls and heifers back to produce for replacements. So it will be interesting to see as they grow, who, in the end, has calves that perform the best.

We’re constantly looking in retrospect and trying to figure out how we can do better, whether it is in our genetics or our management, or even both. Recording and documenting all this information has helped us tremendously in making decisions for the future of our herd and our farm. This topic is definitely something we’re not done exploring and will post new findings as these weaned, spring calves grow.