Tracking performance and evaluating herd success is a year-round process. Similar to tracking athletes, consider developing a scorecard to monitor your herd.
Understanding how your herd is performing throughout the year is important when considering management, nutrition and culling decisions.
For spring-calving herds, now is the time to evaluate and review calving success and failures.
“This is a good time of year to review your records, and if the numbers aren’t where you want them to be, you can make management adjustments under the guidance of your veterinarian, nutritionist or another adviser,” says Jason Warner, Kansas State University cow-calf Extension specialist. Warner was a guest during a recent K-State Beef Cattle Institute Podcast.
A herd’s postcalving scorecard should include:
- pregnancy percentages
- death loss
- calving ease/calving complications – prolapse or retained placenta
- udder scores
- body condition score
- mothering ability and disposition
- calving interval
Two areas Warner tells producers to focus on are the number of live calves born compared to the number of cows exposed to bulls at the start of the breeding season; and the number of cows that became pregnant early in the breeding season.
A top priority for Bob Larson, K-State veterinarian, is to have calves born early in the calving season.
“The goal is to have 65% of the calves born in the first 21 days, and 85% to 90% of the calves born within the first 42 days of the season,” Larson say. “If that happens, I know that the cows were in good body condition at the start of the breeding season and the bulls were fertile.”
Larson references USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring Service (NAHMS) for national averages on abortion and calf death loss.
“The national average is between 1% to 2% for calf death loss and that will vary from year to year within the same operation,” Larson said. “If the producer is calving out a high percentage of heifers, that can influence the calf death loss percentage.”
Scorecard Prep
Ron Lemenager, Purdue professor and beef Extension specialist, suggests producers consider creating a spreadsheet to calculate important percentages, prior to filling out their postcalving scorecard.
He encourages producers record and monitor these numbers each calving season:
- Number of cows exposed
- Number of cows pregnant
Number of cows pregnant / Number of cows exposed = % Pregnant - Number of pregnant cows kept to calve
- Number of cows that calved
Number of cows that calved / Number of pregnant cows kept to calve = % Calving - Number of Live Calves
Number of Live Calves /Number of cows that calved = % live calves born - Number of live calves after one month
- Number of difficult or assisted birth (dystocia, prolapse)
- Number of cows with bad udders
- Number of cows BCS 5 or 6
- Number of cows with poor disposition and poor mothering ability
- Number of cows that calved in the first 21 days
- Number of cows that calved in the second 21 days
- Number of cows that calved in the third 21 days
- Number of cows that calved after 63 days
Lemenager explains using the spreadsheet to calculate the percentages can help producers identify specific problem areas in their calving and breeding processes and allows them to troubleshoot their herd’s breeding performance.
“Tracking herd performance allows producers to zero in on their problems and determine what issues are really facing the herd,” he summarizes.
Understanding the challenges facing a cow herd can help producers determine what nutrition or management strategies can be used to improve their herd’s postcalving scorecard in future years.
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