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

The rules of the game are changing. Sure, quality, pounds, reproduction, performance, health, marketing, risk management and the like have always been important, but the importance has grown exponentially with the changing dynamics of the marketplace...More