http://www.cattlemanagement.com/determining-heifers-to-keep Better Management through Better Records Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:52:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://www.cattlemanagement.com/determining-heifers-to-keep/comment-page-1#comment-8573 Bob Giguiere Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:59:39 +0000 http://www.cattlemanagement.com/?p=529#comment-8573 Heifer selection shouldn't be any less important than bull selection. I worked a place where I was supposed to keep 80 heifers out of one herd. I happened to have a Vet and a cowboy I trusted on hand that day. We worked those heifers and kept 12. I was in big trouble with the boss, but I made a much needed improvement in the herd that day. If the 17% or what ever number you have set as a goal isn't there then your goal is arbitrary. If your heifers aren't going to improve your herd, don't select them. I want heifers that will make breeding weight on their own and that have obvious sexual maturity. I don't want to guess, if she can't show me what I need to see she'll make better beef. We all would be very selective if we were buying heifers, why not be just as selective raising our own. It may take longer to get the numbers we want, but we will get there better and cheaper. The genetics will improve because we are eliminating problems instead of rushing a number to an artificial weight and folding those week genetics into our herd year after year trying to achieve the wrong goals. No one needs to add more cows if they aren't adding better cows. Heifer selection shouldn’t be any less important than bull selection. I worked a place where I was supposed to keep 80 heifers out of one herd. I happened to have a Vet and a cowboy I trusted on hand that day. We worked those heifers and kept 12. I was in big trouble with the boss, but I made a much needed improvement in the herd that day. If the 17% or what ever number you have set as a goal isn’t there then your goal is arbitrary. If your heifers aren’t going to improve your herd, don’t select them. I want heifers that will make breeding weight on their own and that have obvious sexual maturity. I don’t want to guess, if she can’t show me what I need to see she’ll make better beef. We all would be very selective if we were buying heifers, why not be just as selective raising our own. It may take longer to get the numbers we want, but we will get there better and cheaper. The genetics will improve because we are eliminating problems instead of rushing a number to an artificial weight and folding those week genetics into our herd year after year trying to achieve the wrong goals. No one needs to add more cows if they aren’t adding better cows.

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