SUNBELT EXPO CATTLE MANAGEMENT SEMINARS---More Important Than Ever to the Rancher’s Bottom Line
MOULTRIE, GA--- “Reproductive efficiency” has been identified as the single most important financial criteria in the beef industry, according to Dr. Mel Pence of the University of Georgia.
Farmers will discover ways to control this important factor during the Cattle Management Seminars at the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition, October 16-18 this year.
Pence said reproductive efficiency directly affects the farmer’s bottom line. “Non-productive cows cost nearly the same to keep as a productive cow, but do not give the financial return of a cow that produces a calf each 12 months,” he said.
Here’s the reason: A calf weighs about two pounds per day of age at weaning. So for each 21 days (one heat cycle) a cow is late calving, the rancher loses about 40 pounds of calf at weaning. In today’s market, 40 pounds of calf is about $40 lost per year for each heat cycle missed. That remains true even with a controlled breeding season where bulls are removed. Heifers bred at 15 months of age to calve as two-year-olds will produce an extra calf during their lifetime as compared to heifers bred to calve as three-year-olds.
Management of heifers from weaning to breeding will have a great influence on their lifetime productivity, Pence said. The goal is to produce heifers that calve early in the breeding season. To do so, they must reach puberty early. Beef heifer puberty is controlled by three factors: age, nutrition, and genetics. Age can be controlled by heifer selection. Nutritional control can be achieved with the target weight concept--which basically says heifers should weigh 65% of their estimated mature weight at breeding. Individual heifer genetics control comes from veterinarians, who use the technique of reproductive tract scoring to identify heifers that are not likely to breed early in the season.
Pence said the Sunbelt Expo demonstration would emphasize the steps cow/calf producers can take to improve heifer development in their beef cattle operation. The Georgia Heifer Evaluation and Reproductive Development (HERD) program will be identified as a means of validating how heifer development protocols work to produce reproductively efficient cows.
The Sunbelt Expo Cattle Management Seminar will be held each day at 10 am, and 1 and 3 p.m. Over 20 major breeds of cattle will be on display in the Livestock Arena. Other animal breeds such as small ruminants (goats, sheep) and ratites (ostrich, emu) & swine will also be shown at the Expo. Round-the-clock equine demonstrations, and the latest products and techniques from major animal health companies, which include Allflex USA, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Fort Dodge Animal Health, Merial Ltd., Pfizer Animal Health, Priefert Mfg. Co., Schering-Plough Animal Health, and Intervet round out the visitor options in this popular area.
The Sunbelt Expo show hours are from 8:30 am to 5 pm Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 8:30 am to 4 pm on Thursday. The three-day show will be held at Spence Field; four miles southeast of US Hwy 319 on Highway 133 near Moultrie, GA. Admission is $5 per day, per person. Children under 6 are admitted free with a parent. For more information, visit www.sunbeltexpo.com or contact the Expo office at Telephone: (229) 985-1968, Fax: (229) 890-8518, E-mail: info@sunbeltexpo.com -- Address: 290-G Harper Blvd., Moultrie, GA. 31768.