Deciding when to offer assistance for a calving cow is a judgment call and good judgement is the result of experience. Here are tips to help make the determination.
For each 1-degree Fahrenheit the average daily temperature is below 30 degrees a cow in moderate BCS will need an additional one percent in daily energy requirement.
Determining the value of a bull is an important question, and one that is a challenge to answer. Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University, offers some calculations to help determine a value.
What has more value to the profit potential of a commercial cow-calf operation that sells calves at weaning, percent calf crop weaned or weaning weight?
In any nutritional program it is imperative to determine the objective of why we are feeding or supplementing. After defining our goal, we can minimize input costs and maximize our profit potential.
Sound management decisions to improve genetics, management practices and profit potential of cow-calf operations should be based on data. Weaning time is the best time of year to measure, and document herd performance.
Sound management decisions that will impact future profit potential is based on facts arrived at through mathematical analysis. Decisions based on emotions and/or tradition seldom lead to success.
While fall calving is often easier than calving in the winter and early spring, when temperatures are high, it can create unhealthy conditions for calves.
Heat stress is caused by a combination of environmental factors including temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, air movement and precipitation.
