When I teach extension programs, I like to ask the audience questions to get a feel for the crowd. Usually, I ask about breeding season preferences, average cow weight in their herd (this one breaks the ice quickly), their cost to develop beef heifers (cue the blank stares) and, more recently: What did your cows “yield” last year?
This is an uncommon question in the beef cattle space, but one that is valuable to understand. Most grain producers know this number without hesitation either at the farm or field level. In a previous role, I worked in swine production, where pigs per sow per year (PSY) is an annual metric used by that industry, while pigs weaned/saved per litter was a weekly production target. However, as it relates to beef cow production, it may take some thought as to what “yield” can mean. Let’s dive into it.
Many producers will have an idea as to what they sold their calves for and what they weighed at the time of sale. This is a good start to answering the question about cow herd “yield,” but it does not account for lost production.
Some producers may also have data regarding weaning and yearling weights, which are great bits of information to track the cow’s ability to nurse and for the calf to grow, but once again do not count for production losses in the system.
Why factor in production losses? What losses are we concerned about? Accounting for lost production more accurately represents how the herd performed on a given farm. Production losses account for cows that did not have a calf and calves that, for whatever reason, died prior to weaning.
Thus, what I eventually get to in my cow-calf production talks is the metric of weaning rate. Weaning rate is a simple equation calculating the percentage of cows exposed to a bull that weaned a calf. For example, the formula for a 30-cow exposed herd that weaned 27 calves would be: 27/30 = 0.9, for a 90% weaning rate.
By having the number of cows exposed as the denominator in the equation, we have accounted for cows that bring weaning rate down due to reproductive failure or calf death. These cows represent lost revenue while incurring production costs that should be accounted for.
We have calculated a weaning rate. Now we can use our weaning rate multiplied by the herd’s average weaning weight to calculate cow herd “yield.” For example: a 90% weaning rate × 525 pounds = 472.5 adjusted pounds weaned per cow.
The adjusted pounds weaned per cow figure will increase as weaning rate and/or weaning weights increase and decrease as weaning rate and/or weaning weights decrease.
Why is this important? Given today’s cattle prices, changes in the adjusted pounds weaned per cow translate to significant changes in revenue per cow and, ultimately, profit potential.
In our example, with our adjusted weaning weight of 472.5 pounds valued at a hypothetical $500 per hundredweight makes our revenue per cow $2,362.50.
From a benchmarking perspective, a weaning rate of 90% and above is considered good. Many farms are in the 80% to 90% range. Farms in the 70% range have an opportunity to improve reproductive success or practices that reduce preweaning mortality. The idea of weaning rate further emphasizes the old-timer wisdom of “An open cow or dead calf makes no money.”
I’d encourage producers to sit down, look through last year’s records and calculate their weaning rates. Knowing herd production numbers, especially in a commercial herd, can help identify pitfalls and opportunities to make management decisions that will return dividends in the future. It is difficult to make management decisions without the ability to record and use cow performance data.
