how to select replacement heifers

Select Replacement Heifers from the Categories Drop-Down. You could be entering the most important phase of your ranching career. Its Whats For Dinner. Feed high-quality grass or hay, Accuration Liquid Supplement or Accuration Hi-Fat Block, and Wind and Rain Storm Cattle Mineral. phenotypic measurements, parentage data, EPDs), and the accuracy of the test for the breed composition of the selection candidates with regard to the selection objective. "I like to see a herd where no more than 30% or so of cows are 2- and 3-year-olds. | Note that use of artificial insemination in the cow herd at the start of the breeding season can result in the earliest-born heifer calves also having high genetic merit. Heifers conceiving early in their first breeding season have greater lifetime productivity (Figure 8) and should receive priority when selecting replacements. For economic weightings it was assumed that the producer was retaining ownership through feeding and marketing the cattle on a value based grid. Filling the Void: How to choose replacement heifers that will pull Calving difficulty increases with increasing size of calf at birth, which is directly related to the mature weight of the sire. One system Rasby likes is to cull the obvious low 10% to 20% of heifers at weaning. Maternal EPDs. Although it may seem intuitive to focus on female selection to drive fertility, bulls are where selection focus should lie. 6. The calves were weighed and scored for body condition and muscle. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. If all you do is keep every heifer that conceives, you are doing single-trait selection based on one phenotype. Heifers with an infantile reproductive tract score of 1 should be culled. This will save time, labor and money. A heifer calf should not be developed as a replacement candidate if it is structurally unsound, is in poor health, or has an extremely poor disposition. This target weight is especially encouraged if heifers are known to be later-maturing. When making selection decisions to improve fertility it is important to remember that genetic gain in herds is predominately driven by sire selection. Selection is frequently driven by size, as an indicator of age; smaller heifers are often the ones that are born late(r) in the calving season and are too immature to be cycling in time for the first potential breeding season. Pelvic area at that time must be a minimum of 180 cm2. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Base considerations of genetic merit on a relevant economic selection index if one is available for the breed(s) in use. You may be able to run a few more cows on those freed-up acres, allowing you to wean more calves and spread your fixed costs over more animals. It shows that if a cow gets a little protein bump in her diet the last trimester, the calf is programmed for a more productive life in either the feedlot or as a replacement female. Our replacement heifers are required to breed natural service in a 40-day breeding season. Type 2 or more characters into the input search below for suggested results, use up and down arrow keys to navigate through suggest box. W. Mark Hilton , DVM, DABVP, Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University Reviewed/Revised Apr 2014 | Modified Oct 2022 Heifer Selection: Vaccination: Management: Replacement heifer development programs generally begin at weaning as the heifers begin preparation for their initial breeding season. Consider testing the entire crop of heifer calves before the development of replacement heifer candidates if one or more of the following considerations apply: Alternatively, consider testing only bred heifers after pregnancy determination if one or more of the following considerations apply: Selection of Replacement Heifers for Commercial Beef Cattle Operations. Adapted from Anderson et al., 1991, Agri Practice 12(4):123-128. Beef Cattle Record Keeping Basics Alabama Cooperative Extension System, 2019 Feb 5. First, get rid of heifers whose mothers were troublesome. For registered seedstock breeders, you are probably missing an opportunity if you are not genomic testing almost everything. Using category for tracking first calf heifers, replacement heifers Her coverage expanded to include precision farming technology and livestock. Rather, he reminds, you want heifers that fit your resource base, stick around, breed early every year, raise calves with excellent growth and carcass characteristics, and hit the right mature cow weight. "I don't think we really understand that yet," says Rasby. There is an environmental component, too. The selected animals are added to the Replacement Heifers Group. Want More Productive Cows? Focus on Replacement Heifer Development - Purina Likewise, a target weight of 65% is advisable if stricter screening criteria were used at weaning and a minimal number of heifers are developed. With this understanding, short breeding seasons for heifers are recommended, unless late-conceiving heifers can be marketed profitably as bred females. This in turn results in early-born heifers having older and heavier calves at weaning as well as improved reproductive performance in subsequent breeding seasons. Research is showing they do just as well when bred at 55% to 60% of mature weight, and you can save $22 to $30 a head in development costs. A poor disposition is a phenotype. Of course, there are additional criteria to consider when selecting heifers, however. To illustrate the interplay between accuracy, heritability and phenotype, consider a test that explains a quarter of the genetic variation (meaning the test has a correlation (r) of 0.5 with the true breeding value) in a lowly heritable trait like heifer pregnancy rate (h2 = 0.1). As the industry enters expansion phase, give upgrades the best chance of success. Keep the pressure on. what proportion of replacement heifers are selected to return to the herd each year). Tough culling decisions come with drought, forage shortages, Growing your future cows starts now, experts say, New product may help farmers manage herd mastitis issues, Choose cows selectively to improve feed conversion, Your winter-early spring cattle checklist, Cattle experts talk about getting your newborn calf to nurse after birth, LEGOs, the Eiffel Tower, and the John Deere 7000-Series, 7 Key takeaways from Cattlemen's College 2023, Technology helps dairies use data to get profitable, From tragedy to triumph: Ashley Bridges McMurry's farming success, Successful Farming's Editorial Guidelines. Scores taken before this time are less informative, as a large proportion of heifers likely will not be cycling simply due to age. Genomic test results provide an estimate of the genetic merit of heifers. January 25, 2022 Price See Agrilife Learn Price: See Agrilife Learn All Topics Buying Vs. Raising Replacement Heifers Topics: Livestock & Poultry Animals & Livestock Overview When deciding on the best strategy for replacing heifers, beef cattle producers should weigh several factors. While this would give us a better projection, it isn't practical for most to add that many females to their operation for that long. Heifers are cows that have not had their first calf yet - think teenagers - full of spunk and personality at this age. If a sufficiently large number of replacement heifer candidates became pregnant early in the breeding season, this permits more intense selection for genetic merit when deciding which bred replacement heifers to retain. Bigger isn't always better. Endecott, R.L., R. N. Funston, J. T. Mulliniks, and A. Roberts. Thats the breeding season no cleanup bulls. Sometimes we should ignore the environmental piece and just focus on the genetic piece. Thats not really correct. Our purchased bulls must have birth weight, weaning weight and yearling weight Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) in the top 10% of their breed. Likewise, scores taken too close to the start of breeding are less informative, as this gives less time to implement management changes (e.g., changes in nutrition) if reproductive tract scores suggest a problem in the development program. We teach, learn, lead and serve, connecting people with the University of Wisconsin, and engaging with them in transforming lives and communities. Before development as replacement heifer candidates (Figure 2), heifer calves should be screened for soundness, health, disposition, date of birth, and genetic merit. Some physical characteristics of an animal can also indicate poor adaptation to the environment. Cows that calve in the . number of calves weaned per cow exposed). That heifer development enterprise really ought to be profitable in and of itself if you are going to do it. For example, you should ignore a bulls actual weight at birth. Do the honest math and see. In other words, to test all of your potential replacement heifers the cost of the test would need to be under $24 for it to provide a positive return on investment assuming the accuracy of the test is 0.3. Genetics 3. Therefore, parentage testing for sires can be a very useful genomics tool to assist in heifer selection and is much less expensive than genomically testing all of the heifers. Funston. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. This work is supported in part by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. Are heifer development practices resulting in inadequate numbers of heifers reaching target weight, attaining puberty, or becoming pregnant early in the breeding season? With 30 days of breeding, you will have some calves as much as 10 days early and still be calving 40 days later. At that point, you can induce the rest and get done quickly. Some cattle producers like to use yearling bulls on yearling heifers, which reduces stress at breeding time 4. Tips on selecting heifers - Farmer's Weekly If heifer calves are promoted to cows for breeding, the animals will remain in this smart group, since no animal type (calf, cow) was specified, as long as the Category of Replacement Heifers . Select heifers from older cows as these cows are successful in the current production system, as replacement heifers must grow and develop in similar feeding conditions. Regardless of whether a 55% or 65% target is used for weight at breeding, ensure that subsequent nutritional development is sufficient. One system Rasby likes is to cull the obvious low 10% to 20% of heifers at weaning. Genomic testing is an incredible tool to more accurately assess the genetic merit of animals. If you have to spend an additional years worth of development costs to get heifers to breed back, arent you keeping the wrong kind of heifers? Having your veterinarian take pelvic measurements can be a great way to identify heifers that would have problems calving.
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