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Commercial Producers Share Their Replacement Criteria

Like shopping for a pickup, selecting heifers depends on your vision, resources and how you plan to use them. We talked to a number of commercial cow-calf producers about how they go about selecting the newest genetic components for their herds. Here’s what they had to say.

Read and Discuss

Feb. 7, 2012

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Reproductive Management Stressed At Cattlemen's College In Nashville

BEEF Senior Editor Burt Rutherford gives a review of the sessions he attended at the Cattlemen's College held at the Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, TN....More
Jan. 30, 2012

Article

U.S. Beef Cow Productivity Is Stagnant

Look at the genetic trend for performance traits in commonly used beef breeds and the steep, positive slope of improvement is staggering. But if you compare that to the pounds on the ground, and the ability of commercial cows to breed, calve, and wean a calf and then breed back, the lack of progress is just as shocking....More
Jan. 30, 2012

Article

Paternity Testing Alone Won’t Pay For Itself

Bulls in multi-sire breeding pastures sire a widely divergent number of calves, yet the cost of paternity testing calves through DNA still runs higher than the value of sorting the Romeos from the wallflowers....More
Jan. 30, 2012

Article

Improve Ability To Make Accurate, Profitable Decisions About Young Angus Sires

A recent analysis shows that adding genomic information to expected progeny differences (EPDs) can increase a producer’s odds of selecting the most appropriate Angus sires for his or her individual herd goals....More
Jan. 26, 2012

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Market Advisor: The Economic Value Of A Preg-Checked Heifer

Harlan Hughes explores the economic value of preg-checked heifers and what is limiting cow-herd expansion in the U.S.. The graphs below complement his in-depth discussion found in his February Market Advisor column.
Jan. 26, 2012

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Crossbreeding Is Becoming Cool Again

While manicuring the individual trees of cattle performance traits, the cow-calf industry apparently missed the proverbial forest. At least it has if you consider that three primary measures of cow productivity – weaning weight, pregnancy rate and pounds weaned per cow exposed – are static to declining. That’s according to data presented by David Lalman, Oklahoma State University Extension beef specialist, and Stan Bevers, Texas AgriLife Extension agricultural economist (see “U.S.Beef Cow Productivity Is Stagnant")....More
Jan. 20, 2012

Article

Creating A Home-Grown Composite

My husband and I started crossing Angus and Hereford cattle in the 1960s, breeding a Hereford bull to Angus cows. We felt this cross worked better than the reverse (Angus bull on Hereford cows – the traditional cross), since our Angus cows were good mothers and milked better than the Herefords we had at that time....More
Jan. 6, 2012

Article

Preparation Is Key When Buying Bulls

As the winter and spring bull-buying season approaches, seedstock purchasers should do their homework to help ensure their bull purchases meet their needs. Preparedness is the key to making an informed purchase....More
Jan. 1, 2012

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Reproduction Is A Key To Improving Ranch Profitability

“In today’s changing and volatile input markets, it is critical that, as individual producers and as an industry, we examine the economic efficiency of our production systems and be prepared to modify some of the rules of thumb that have guided decisions in the past.”...More
Jan. 1, 2012

Article

New Embryo Transfer Rule Begins Jan. 1

A new embryo transfer (ET) rule, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2012, will require Angus producers who want to register embryo transfer (ET) calves to request an ET authorization when the first owner of a calf is different than the owner of the donor dam....More

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