It was the day after Christmas. We were working on a chore that I would have liked to have finished a month earlier, but the stars never did quite align as I had hoped. So here we were, on Dec. 26, finally running the cows through the chute for preg checking.

Cull cows can be a major factor in the bottom line of a ranch, representing 10% to 20% of the ranch’s total cow-calf revenue. However, selling and marketing cull cows is not a primary focus of the ranch, and more effort tends to be placed on calf revenue.

Addressing factors contributing to pregnancy loss, such as stress, nutrition and herd health, can create the best opportunity for pregnancy survival.

Reproductive efficiency is a key driver of profitability in a cow-calf operation, since females that don’t conceive still consume resources without producing a return. Several factors influence pregnancy outcomes, including animal health, nutrition, stress and adherence to estrus synchronization protocols.

With respect to cattle inventories and price levels for both cattle and beef, the cattle industry is experiencing unprecedented times. Certainly, there have been swings both upward and downward in the feeder calf market, but prices have generally been historically high the past couple years, with the same expectations for 2025 and 2026. 

Running a successful cow-calf operation requires an almost immeasurable amount of management decisions, ranging from ration ingredients to whether in vitro fertilization (IVF) is in the cards.

Weak calf syndrome is exactly as it sounds; newborn calves are born weak, fail to thrive and often never get up to nurse. This is not a new phenomenon, and the industry has been combating it for decades.

Most rural landowners could raise beef on their properties by slapping together a fence, building a shelter, gathering feed requirements and ensuring a constant water supply – if that was all it took. These isolated actions will never on their own drive positive results.

Wowk Ranch near Beauvallon, Alberta, specializes in breeding, training and selling high-quality horses of various breeds and runs 200 commercial cattle that they feed with a team in the winter.