The month of February is full of dates to remember: Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl, Presidents Day and even National Love Your Pet Day. It is also a month full of calving for many producers in the West. With calving comes a busy time of checking cows multiple times a day, providing adequate nutrition and remembering to update your records regularly during this busy time.

Fonnesbeck sawyer
Extension Educator / University of Idaho

It is this last component I would like to focus on this month. Accurate records are a key component of any successful operation. In the December 2024 issue of Progressive Cattle, my colleague Tyler O’Donnell wrote about the variety of ways records can be kept, including manually with a notebook (such as the ever-popular IRM Redbook) or electronically with your phone or other electronic device. My focus today will be on which records to keep, particularly during calving season.

An easy one to start with would be the actual date of birth. These records help you down the road when you are looking at how long your calving window was and determining ages when it comes time to sell your calf crop. Accurate recording of what calf belongs to which cow is vitally important when making culling decisions later in the year. If there is a cow that has been producing some nice calves, (good structure and nice ability to gain weight) then having those yearly records can help ensure that cow stays around to produce more. The same goes for the opposite for when a cow just doesn’t produce calves we like. Don’t leave this decision to memory, write it down!

Developing and being consistent with a good tagging protocol is another good way to record information that can be easily read from the ear. Eartags might contain the dam’s info, sire’s info, birthdate and the calf’s ID in one form or another. These can come in handy when trying to identify cows/calves while sorting, weaning or any other time during the year.

If possible, obtaining a birthweight is a valuable piece of information to keep. Many producers with registered herds already do this to input their data into a breed registry along with other points, such as calving ease. Birthweight can be measured with either a simple electronic scale or a weight tape. This weight is a needed component of figuring out average daily gains and 205-day adjusted weaning weights, which are helpful figures to determine how efficient your calf crop is at converting feed to growth.

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Accurate and up-to-date records help make management decisions easier with accurate data to feed those decisions. Remember, the dullest pencil is better than the sharpest memory.