Benefits of a Managed Breeding Season

Many producers are already in the process of making decisions about this year's breeding season. These decisions include things such as about what bulls to use on which cows or how early should I turn in my bulls for breeding(or when to artificially inseminate). A producer must make a choice on all these decisions while keeping in mind how this might effect the future of his farm and herd. According to Brent Plugge , an Extension Educator from the University of Nebraska, controlling the breeding and the subsequent calving season can provide many benefits to a producer. These benefits include:

• Shortened calving season provides producers a better opportunity to offer improved management and observation of the cow herd(results in fewer losses at calving)
• Shortened calving periods also facilitates improvements in herd health and management through uniformity in timing of vaccinations and routine management practices(results decreased labor requirements)
• Cow nutrition can be improved by grouping cows according to stage of gestation and feeding each group accordingly
• Calf crop will be more uniform in age and size

The article goes on to tell us calves born in the first 21 days of the calving season had greater carcass weights, marbling scores, and yield grades than later born calves. Since this is a lot of information to distill at one time I am going to explain to you the point they are trying to make with the given information.

Cow and Calves

The first couple points talk about a shortened calving season(which is a direct result of management decision made in the breeding season) can result in fewer losses at calving and decreased labor requirements. This is a result of a shorter calving season because with your calving season being in a certain time frame you will know when to go check your cows versus someone who has a long calving season and eventually quits checking them due to other priorities. This can also result in reduced labor requirements because you know once your done calving you won't be spending those late nights and long days out there living with your cattle to insure all goes well and your calves will all have their vaccinations at once versus a long calving season where some may get their first vaccine in the spring and others that are born later would have to be brought in sometime after they are born to get their first vaccines.

The final three points talk about sorting cattle up according to when they are going to calve and this is basically to provide them with the proper nutrition before they calve and the calf crop will be more uniform in age and size because they were all born around the same time and have similar growth traits. The last part talks about how earlier born calves do better overall than later born calves which doesn't surprise me at all. Typically, your greater quality cows will calve in the first cycle every year so genetics would tell us the calves out of these cows will perform better than calves out of cows who don't conceive until their second or even third cycle. Overall, I believe producers should take time out of their schedule to construct a game plan for the upcoming breeding season so once it arrives they are able to take action and follow something they have put some time into.

Pedv:Helping the Cattle Market

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) is an outbreak of a virus in the pork industry that has effected pork producers in the United States as well as neighboring countries. Once this virus spreads it is liable to take out the entire herd which is going to and has taken a significant amount of pork out of the market. According to Rabobank, they estimate American Pork Production will be down 6% to 7% in 2014 which is the largest decline in 30 years. I would like to say I saw this day coming since hogs are now mainly raised in confinements where once one pig gets sick they all get sick but I didn't.

Anyways, enough about the pork producers lets talk about how this is going to help out the cattle market or the beef side of this equation. Some people may not think other commodity markets such as corn or hogs for this instance can effect other markets but they do and should be watched closely. For starters, I believe is it going to tremendously help out beef producers and take some pressure off of the record breaking prices in the cattle market. 

For awhile, the cattle market would go up and consumers and other factors would push back and drive the price back down but as of recently we have seen the market going up or staying steady. One reason I believe this true is beef producers realize people are going to have to keep buying beef despite what the price is because pork is going to go up as well. Basically, what this means is consumers can't rely on buying pork as an alternate for beef when the price goes up. Also I believe consumers are accepting that the price of beef was going to eventually go up just like everything else and they are now getting used to the rise in price. So with beef and pork production both going down and with even more people out there to feed this is creating a perfect storm in the cattle market that was much needed for beef producers.

Retail Beef Prices Continue UPWARD Trend

Many of my friends have started to question me about why beef prices, ground beef in particular, have rose so much in the recent months. My first response was what do you mean because as a producer we a butcher all of our meat so even though I had heard prices were going up in stores I hadn't realized just how much it was going up.

According to University of Missouri, in February retail beef prices increased by 23 cents to an average of $5.58 per pound. This was the largest jump in over ten years which caused beef prices to increase 34% in that month alone. With that being said, I can understand why consumers are beginning to ask questions about beef prices and slowing down on buying beef.

Beef Price Chart

As a producer, the most simplest way to tell people why prices are going up is there is a supply and demand issue going on within the cattle market where there is high demand and low supply. Unlike other commodity markets such as corn or beans, cattle cannot bounce back as fast from a bad year it takes several years to recover. What consumers are experiencing is the effects of the drought in 2012 where producers were forced to cull or cut back on the size of their herd(depleting supplies for this year) for many different reasons with the main one being input costs. Some producers couldn't afford to keep the cattle around so they sold what they had and went a different way with their operation which continued to shrink the size of the cow herd which is now the smallest it's been since the 1950's.

Many producers are now in the rebuilding stage of their herd and are doing so by keeping back replacement heifers which is keeping even more cattle out of the market. The combination of all this has caused the price of cattle being sold  to increase drastically and in return has caused it to go up for consumers. Overall, I believe we will see retail beef prices continue to increase for consumers over the next several months until we can rebuild the cattle herd back up to where supply and demand are more balanced which could take several years. 

Weather Could Strike FEAR into the Cattle Market

The best gift a farmer or producer can have is moisture. Many producers around my area are beginning to spread fertilizer and get their planters ready for a new crop season but without moisture this fertilizer will not melt and soak in and our top soils will be too dry for crops to come up. This puts great fear into many of the markets because of the drought we had in 2012 where in the Midwest we went many days without any moisture which caused yields to drop drastically in crops and cause the price to go up which caused the cattle market down because of high feed costs.

Drought Monitor

The implementation of a new farm bill helps with natural disasters such as drought which will provide much needed relief for producers should the weather not cooperate. The cattle on feed report  was down 1 percent last Friday which continues a downward trend for the past 19 months. In return, this has caused beef prices to hit an all time high but one thing that could effect these record prices is the weather. Recent drought in California(large in milk production) threatened that milk prices would go over $5 a gallon if moisture or relief was given soon which shows what the weather can do to a market. If the weather doesn't provide producers with adequate moisture grass will dry up and hay supplies will go down fast because fall pasture will never have a chance to grow back. Overall, to keep the cattle market steady the weather needs to cooperate otherwise we will see some large downward swings which could really hurt producers.

Green Grass: It's Just Around the Corner

As the grass and wheat begins to green up here in northern Missouri producers will start to think about turning their cattle out to grass as soon as possible. Many producers will have to work their cows and calves before turning them out and some will need to go around their fence to make sure the cattle stay in once they are turned out. Others may think about using a harrow to break up some of the manure left on the field from the previous year and spread it around as a form of organic fertilizer. Whatever the situation may be one thing for sure is producers should hold out until the pasture is well established before turning their cattle out to graze it.

Harrow

Wide temperature swings here in Missouri can have grass growing like crazy one day and the next day it may be below freezing and not grow at all. I know last year when producers were short on hay many turned out to grass too soon and when the whether got cold(it also snowed) their cattle were out of grass which resulted in feeding hay again and a shortage of grass for the summer. Also the grass was exposed to extreme cold temperatures this winter which may have stunted any growth or progress it might have made through the winter. According to Duane Dailey, from University of Missouri Extension, "Producers should wait for grass to reach a minimum of 4 inches of new growth before turning cattle out to graze on it." I believe this is true because once it gets around that height it is normally tall enough to stay ahead of the cattle for the grazing season. Overall, I believe producers should hold out as long as possible when turning their cattle out to grass to make sure something doesn't change where they may run out of grass.

Cattle Sales

While on spring break this week I have been able to watch a couple different sales around the area. The first was on Tuesday at Unionville Livestock Market where they had a little over 1400 head to sell. A few of the prices paid were feeder steers medium and large 1 frame weighing 717 brought $1.93 per pound which comes out to $1383.81 per head. A few yearling prices paid were steers averaging a weight of 818 pounds brought anywhere from $1.72-$1.74 per pound which comes out to $1415.06 per head. They also sold a few replacement heifers weighing 705 pounds and brought $1.84 for a total of $1297.20 per head which is a normal price since these heifers are becoming very popular around the area. A few feeder heifers medium and large 1 frame weighing 564 pounds and brought $186.00 per pound for a total of $1049 per head.

The next day I was able to go to another sale(as you can tell I wasn't getting much work done) in Green City, Missouri. Green City Livestock had a little over 2300 head to cattle with 88 percent of those being feeders and 12 percent being cows and bulls. Feeder steers medium and Large 1 weighing 700-800 pounds averaged anywhere from $1.75-$1.96 per pound and lighter steers weighing 500-600 pounds brought anywhere from $2.20-$2.33 per pound. Feeder heifers weighing 700-750 brought anywhere from $1.75-$1.78 per pound with replacement heifers bringing over $1.80 per pound. Lighter feeder heifers weighing 500-600 pound brought $1.89-2.07 per pound. They also have a strong weigh cow market ranging from 77-99 cents per pound

Bull Sale

http://brinkleyangusranch.com/

This weekend I had the chance to go to the 12th Annual Brinkley Angus Ranch Bull Sale in Green City, Missouri. The sale featured sons of Connealy Consensus, Connealy Confidence, Sitz Upward and many other top notch bulls. The top bull sold for $25000 and many of the others sold for $10000 and lower with the average being $6500 on around 80 head of fall and yearling bulls.


Top producers from around the area was the main audience at the sale so it is nice to know most of the bulls will be staying around the area. The sale also featured 40 commercial heifers with pairs by the Miller Brothers. The calves of these heifers were sired by one of the world's top registration bulls SAV Bismark 5682 and Brinkley Angus Ranch bulls and averaged around $3011 per pair. Overall, I thought the sale was a huge successful for all parties and look forward to attending this sale in the future.

Disposition

Producers look for cattle with a great disposition. This means they are calm in nature or temperament and should give the producer no problems when handling. Cattle with a bad temperament do you no good to keep around for  many different reasons including:

Cow showing poor temperament

• Putting you at greater risk of being injured from an attack
• Hard to handle and get corralled in
• They gain less weight in a feedlot from stress
• Less attractive and lose value when being sold

Now granted there is always one cow in the bunch whether you are buying or keeping them yourself that turns up with a bad temperament. Its almost impossible to avoid and most of the time producers end up keeping the cow because they can't afford to get rid of her. According to Ryan Sterry, a University of Wisconsin Extension Agent, poorly tempered cows have the tendency to have poorer fertility.

This may be true in a few cases but from personal experience I would say this is a load of crap. We have had a few poorly tempered cows over the years and we tend to keep them for many years  not because we want to but because they always breed back.They not only breed back but they can raise a calf in all sorts of weather conditions with no assistance and have the best calf every year. Overall, I believe the best thing to do is sell a cow with a bad temperament because she can put you at a high risk of getting injured which just isn't worth it.

Calving Season for Beef Cattle

It is that time of year when producers spend all day and all night waiting for the next calf to be born.Baby calves are dropping everywhere and producers hope and pray the weather stays nice.(NO COLD WEATHER) Producers must make crucial decisions long before these baby calves are born and it is more or less a guessing game on whether you picked a good time to start calving or not.

Most producers like to start calving their heifers before their cows so they can focus all their attention on the heifers. I believe this can sometimes be a poor strategy because the calves can suckle the cows down too hard by the time you wean them and leave them with a bad body condition score. Also producers must decide how long the calving season should last. Producers with strict management usually have calving periods of 60-90 days but others may leave their bulls in all year around. I think it depends on the type of facilities you have and whether or not you even have room to take the bull out and put him somewhere. 

According to Mark Mauldin,University of Florida Extension Agent, the implementation of a defined  breeding/calving season has the potential to improve the profitability of a cow/calf operation more than any other single management strategy. Even though this is a fairly bold statement I would have to agree because you know exactly when your cows start calving and exactly when they are done. You don't have to check them all summer and run the risk of having them die from the hot summer heat and you can spend time on other projects and not have to worry about them calving which is where the profitability comes into play. (The image above is a Cow/calf pair)

Calving Difficulties

A few local cattle producers have been complaining about having calving difficulties in their first calf heifers. They selected bulls with low birth weights and proven calving ease but are still having to assist heifers when they calve every once in awhile. According to Warren Rusche, a cow/calf field specialist,calving difficulty in first calf heifers can cause conception rates for the next breeding season to go down 16% from 85% for heifers that calved unassisted to 69% for heifers that had calving difficulties. Some of the producers believe the cold weather has contributed to larger birth weights which has resulted in larger calves and more difficulty when the heifers calve. Other producers believe it has something to do with the feed the heifers were being fed that caused the calf to get too big before they started calving. Producers realize these heifers are too expensive to be having calving difficulties which can usually result in death loss for the calf and permanent damage to the reproductive track of the heifer so if you are having the same troubles with your heifers here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. If the heifer appears to be having trouble don't let her go very long before taking action
2. Make sure you are prepared to assist the heifer with the proper equipment in place
3. Sanitize all your equipment to keep from infecting the heifer
4. Your facilities should be up to date to make the process as easy as possible
5. Call someone to help you; An extra pair of hands can be helpful

Livestock Risk Protection

This past week my family and I attended a conference on the Livestock Risk Protection(LRP) program. It is a program that protects you from price risk  by guaranteeing you a certain price for your feeder cattle under 600 pounds and over 600 pounds . With the extreme high prices of cattle at the moment my family decided it would be best to enter into this program to protect us from a decline in price. The first step is to decide how many head of cattle you want to lock in and how far ahead you want to lock these cattle in. The insurance periods range from 13 to 52 weeks but you must have the cattle in order to lock in your price. Once you decide the length of the period there is a chart that provides you with a list of prices and different coverage options. After this is determined you pay a premium according to the coverage level you selected and you can subtract this number from your guaranteed coverage price to get your margin. According to The Stock Exchange, LRP gives producers two potential advantages:

• the ability to cover a small or an odd number of head as opposed to covering 50,000 pounds on the futures market
• it effectively gives the producer a price-floor basis for any class of cattle 

LRP has become a fairly popular program for beef producers in the Midwest because of recent fluctuations in the market. I believe this program is similar to what crop producers have with crop insurance and can be beneficial to not only backgrounding operations but to cow-calf producers as well.

Maximizing Resources

Producers are constantly using resources to make decisions about their operation. According to Jane Parish, a Mississippi State University Beef Cattle Specialist, two important resources a producer has is people and time. Someone has to do the work for the operation and most of the time this is done by someone other than the owner. In order for the operation to be effective the manager or hired hand must know what they are doing otherwise they are going to cost you money. One way to minimize this risk is selecting the right person for the job. Different people have different skills and by being able to recognize which person is most suitable for the job, producers can maximize their resource. Another important resource producers must use wisely is their time. From experience, I can say there is never have enough time in the day to get everything done but by having a game plan for each day you might be able to make better use of the time you do have. Producers need to be able to minimize distractions and prioritize what work needs to be done first and what can wait until the next day. Overall, I believe people and time are two resources that producers can easily overlook which can really steal from their bottom line.

(Using your resources wisely: Resources)

Replacement Heifers

Every year we go through the same process of trying to figure out whether we want to keep or buy replacement heifers. The same arguments always seem to come up with the main one being you can't beat heifers you keep out of your own herd. At the time this statement seems reasonable but replacement heifers can become quite an expense after a short period of time. You raise these heifers from birth and have to feed them for two years before they even have a calf and then have to wait another six months to sell a calf and make some kind of profit. Heifer bulls are now rising in popularity which has driven the price way up putting even more costs into those heifers. Once this is all done you then have one or two heifers that don't breed or lose calves so you end up selling them after you have kept them all this time. After you take all of this into account it is becoming harder for me to believe that keeping your own heifers is worth it because I didn't even consider the opportunity cost you absorb while working with these heifers. According to Patrick Gunn, Iowa State University Extension cow-calf specialist, many factors can come into play when deciding to keep or buy replacement heifers and Ag Decision Maker can help sort out those factors but buying is starting to become a more attractive alternative. I strongly agree with this statement because it takes a lot of risk out of your operation and you can find heifers that will match your quality if you look hard enough. Overall, I believe the deciding factor on whether to keep or buy replacement heifers depends on how attached you are to the heifers and your financial situation.  

(Replacement Heifer Cost Chart: By Hoards)