In anticipation of the cattle industry’s inevitable rebuilding of the national cow herd, AngusLink, the American Angus Association’s USDA process-verified program, has introduced a new tool for objectively describing the genetic potential of replacement females. 

With calf and feeder prices on the rise and imminent expansion of the U.S. cow herd in years to come, many producers are considering purchasing or retaining additional heifers to expand their cow-calf herds.

“Genetic improvement” is a term with far-reaching implications, uniquely and individually defined by those in the beef industry.

“Male sexed semen is an opportunity to capture value,” said Kansas State University's Ken Odde, who also helps manage a family cow-calf ranch in South Dakota. “The opportunity’s greater when the price spread between steers and heifers is significant.”

With more than 1,000 head of registered Hereford, Angus and commercial Brahman-influenced cattle, the Melancon family has their sights set on making a name for themselves in the Southern seedstock industry. 

Every cow and calf in your herd is a representation of hard work and calculated management decisions. Each new generation has the ability to serve as a building block for future performance and profitability.

Many diseases enter our herds when we acquire new animals and commingle them with our herd. In a cow-calf operation, this often occurs with the addition of new herd sires, replacement females or calves you intend to graft on a cow who lost her calf.

It’s time to talk more about controlling replacement costs from the perspective of the cow-calf enterprise.

The nuance of feeding breeding stock takes on greater dimension compared to feeder cattle because of the long-term considerations required of breeding stock. In a broad sense, the goal with replacement heifers is to give them the nutritional foundation for success that will hopefully allow them to produce eight to 10 big, healthy calves in their productive lifetime.