{"id":46082,"date":"2019-07-12T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=46082"},"modified":"2019-07-08T08:22:48","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T13:22:48","slug":"%ef%bb%bfthe-art-of-culling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=46082","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffThe art of culling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Makenna Fritts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ness City junior<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\nsometimes hold on to something way past when we should have let it go. Many\nranchers and cow\/calf operators are guilty of holding on too long to cows that\nneed to be culled. Perhaps it\u2019s a young replacement heifer for the herd, a\nfavorite cow that lost a calf or didn\u2019t breed back, or that mean-tempered cow\nthat\u2019s put you over the fence at least once or twice. Whatever the reason,\nshe\u2019s costing money (feed, pasture rent, vaccine, or medical bills) without a\nreturn of income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culling\ncows comes down to a few basic issues such as age, health, breeding history,\nudder soundness, and mothering ability. Having good records on every cow makes\nthe culling decision less of a guessing game and more about hard facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s\na decline in the reproduction of a cow at 8-10 years of age and an even steeper\ndecline at 12 years of age or older, according to a Drovers article titled\n\u201cProper Cow Culling Is Important to Your Business.\u201d At 12 years of age the cow\nwill also wean 25-percent less in a calf\u2019s weaning weight than the previous\nyear, said Dr. Kurt Vogel, DVM for Heritage Veterinary Services, Utica. Harlan\nHughes in a recent Beef Magazine article referenced CHAPS (Cow Herd Analysis\nPerformance System) and suggested 2.3 percent of cows are culled due to old\nage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it\ncomes to the health of the cow, keep a close eye on the soundness of hooves,\nlegs and eyes. A cow with foot rot infection, arthritic, or stifle joint issues\nwon\u2019t travel a pasture like they should, and their body condition score (BCS)\nis going to go down because of these mobility issues that reduce their\ncapability to graze and travel to a water source. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also\naccording to Drovers, cancer eye is a big health problem due to the fact that\nit\u2019s a leading cause for condemning beef carcasses. If the cow is culled when\nthe cancer growth is small, before it engulfs the eyeball and invades the lymph\nnodes, the carcass can be used for a beef product and not be condemned as unfit\nfor human consumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nranchers or cow\/calf operators put less culling pressure on the breeding\nhistory of the cow. Vogel says a cow needs to raise a calf every year, or she\nneeds to be sold. Pregnancy checking will eliminate feeding an animal that\ndoesn\u2019t have a calf at the end of the calving season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHAPS\nsuggested that 5 percent of the cows culled are culled due to them being open\n(not pregnant), said Hughes. Depending on the rancher or cow\/calf operator, a\ncow might be culled if she loses her calf, has calving difficulties, or if she\naborts her calf. At the end of the day, if the cow isn\u2019t producing and raising\na calf, she\u2019s not paying her way and she\u2019s costing the operator time and\nincome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Udder\nsoundness is important when it comes to weaning weights in the calves. A cow\nwith big teats makes it difficult for new born calves to suck and get valuable\ncolostrum needed for a healthy immune system, and cows with large, funnel\nshaped teats might indicate a previous case of mastitis (inflammation of breast\ntissue that sometimes involves an infection) and renders the quarter milk\nproduction, said Drovers. A cow with one bad udder quarter is going to wean 30\npounds less in calf weight, said Vogel. A cow with good udder health and good\nmilk production makes for a healthy calf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nvital that a cow displays good mothering ability. You don\u2019t want a cow that\ngives birth to a calf and walks away, leaving it to get chilled during winter\nconditions or become vulnerable to predators. Inadequate mothering ability\nmakes the rancher or cow\/calf operators\u2019 life just a little more difficult,\nbecause more man hours are required to get the cow\/calf pair into a barn or\ncorral and make sure the cow and calf bond. However, if the cow is too\naggressive, the rancher or cow\/calf operator has to determine if she\u2019s too\ngreat a risk to the operator\u2019s safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nculling any cow, make the most income. While a cow\/calf producer\u2019s yearly focus\nmay be on annual calf sale revenue, 15-30 percent of a cow\/calf operators\u2019\nyearly gross revenue comes from the sale of culled cows from the herd,\naccording to Greg Henderson, in another Drovers article. Those percentages\nreally put into perspective how important it is to cull the cow herd at the best\ntime when the market is high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the\nlast 30 years, the best time to take cull cows to market is March through May,\nand the least opportune time to market them is November through January, said\nDrovers. Therefore, holding onto fall cull cows and selling at a later date\nmight realize a higher profit by allowing the cows to gain weight and\nadditional fat. Watching local cattle markets and timing sale decisions could\nmake a difference in revenue for any size operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare no annual revenue guarantees for ranchers and cow\/calf operator. Every day\nhas its challenges, but keeping accurate records on each cow in any operators\u2019\nherd is the key to making good culling decisions. Cows that fall short of\nculling management criteria should be considered for culling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makenna Fritts, a 2016 Ness City High School graduate, is a junior majoring in agronomy at Fort Hays State University. She is the daughter of Aaron and Stephanie Pavlu, Ness City.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This essay on a topic in agriculture was researched and written by a student as part of a project in a senior animal science class at Fort Hays State University. The project director is Dr. Brittany Howell, associate professor of agriculture, bjhowell@fhsu.edu<\/a>, 785-628-4015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Makenna Fritts Ness City junior We can sometimes hold on to something way past when we should have let it go. Many ranchers and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,3398,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Fritts-Makenna-040A8580.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46084,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46082\/revisions\/46084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}