– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension (originally published in Progressive Cattle)
Do you ‘kick the crutch’ from the unproductive ones?
Spring calving season is an important time for culling decision making. Cows that have been treated well but lack in performance should be evaluated at this time.
Set Excuses Aside
This winter I had the opportunity to attend the American Forage and Grassland Council Annual Meeting and Conference in Mobile, Alabama. It is my favorite agricultural conference to attend because inspiration for developing better farm systems come together from producers, academics, industry, and extension in the same space on an equal platform. From the start, I was looking for the idea for the article you are reading now, and it didn’t take long to find.
The first speaker of the conference was Dr. Will Carter who operates a veterinary clinic with his wife, Dr. Monnie Carol Carter, and their centennial family farm raising beef cattle. They were recently honored as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Environmental Stewardship Producers of 2023. In Dr. Carter’s presentation he shared that one of the first lessons they learned and implemented in regard to the cattle was how critical it is to choose and keep cows that thrive in their system and to get rid of those that do not. He stated that in the spring they “kick the crutch out from under their cows” and see who can run in the system. I liked that analogy, and it reminded me of a program topic we offered at a local beef school several years ago called “Cows Without Crowns.” Both phrases refer to the same idea. The cows you keep need to perform in the system you have without excuses.
If you have spent much time in the cattle industry, you have probably heard this advice a time or two, but maybe still have some trouble implementing it. When you spend money and invest time in your cow herd it can be bittersweet to say goodbye to those cows that we want to fit the system but fit like square pegs in a round hole.
Cows that arrive on the farm with a high price tag have a tendency to be crowned as queens before they prove themselves in the system. They get special treatment when it comes to performance, because the investment cost to get them on farm was so substantial. Hopefully, they are worth that special treatment and they pay for themselves quickly, but it takes time to find out.
If performance is inadequate, they might get crutches instead of making the cull list. No one wants to lose money selling an expensive cow, so she might get an excuse and a second chance. The challenge with handing out crutches in the form of more time and chances to perform is that they come with significant cost too. That expensive cow gets more and more expensive with time, but not necessarily more valuable.
Crowns and crutches don’t make the farm money. They take food out of the family’s mouths and revenue out of the farm accounts. Every cow should be adding value to the farm as marketable beef either as healthy calves or a hefty carcass.
When evaluation time comes around, it is important to review the cow’s job description.
The Brood Cow’s Responsibility
The job expectations of the brood cow are not very complicated. She should:
- Be ready to carry a calf by the time she is two years old.
- Get bred within your defined season.
- Calve within your defined season.
- Wean a marketable calf.
- Do these tasks on a regular basis.
- Do so under the management style that meets the goals of your farm.
If the brood cow is not able to meet these criteria, then she isn’t worth having on your payroll.
Lack of performance in these areas leads to the following barriers to profitability:
- Low reproductive efficiency.
- Non uniformity of calves.
- High feed costs.
- High capital investment.
The most efficient way to increase revenue is to reduce costs. In many cow-calf systems the following strategies can be implemented to boost profitability:
- Reduce supplemental feed costs by maintaining efficient cows.
- Implement rotational grazing with highly mobile cows.
- Use good genetics by selecting for easy births, adequate milk, and good mothering instincts.
- Reduce your labor costs by only keeping cows with pleasant dispositions.
- Maintain a good herd health program so you have healthy cows all year.
- Maintain reproductively efficient cattle that get pregnant and stay pregnant.
- If everything in the system is going well, except the cow, market her before the situation goes too far downhill.
Spring calving time is a great time to do performance reviews of your current cows on staff and determine if they are worth keeping another season. Get rid of any crowns or crutches you encounter and move forward toward a more profitable situation with the only cows that consistently add value to the farm.
For assistance with developing your culling criteria and maintaining your farm records, reach out to your local Extension service for additional information and tools.