In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays features comments from Dr. Bob Weaber of Kansas State from his presentation in the OSU Thursday Ranchers Lunchtime Series on the Tug of War in the Cattle Industry. Dr. Weaber believes the future of the cow-calf business depends on building a more efficient, productive mama cow—one that fits the environment, breeds back consistently, and produces pounds that pay.
For producers facing rising costs, tighter margins, and continued discussion about bigger carcasses versus larger cows, Weaber says profitability still comes back to fundamentals inside the cow herd.
Genetics and Management Must Work Together
Weaber says longevity and maternal strength are never created by genetics alone.
“Improvement of cow longevity and maternal performance ultimately, is a function of both genetics and environment.”
While he is trained as an animal breeder, Weaber says management decisions remain just as important because they determine how cattle perform in the real world. “I’m an animal breeder by training, but I haven’t lost the importance of management and environment.”
That real-world performance is what matters most in a commercial setting. “That’s phenotype that pays the bills, right?”
He says producers can improve cow performance through better genetics and better management—but poor decisions in either area can hurt the herd just as quickly. “We can improve an animal’s phenotype in terms of either cow longevity or maternal performance by improving both of those things, and we can also decrease fitness and performance by affecting both of those things.”
Because of that, replacement heifer development deserves careful attention. “We have to be careful and intentional in what we do as we build replacement heifers.”
Building Better Replacements Starts With Bull Selection
Weaber says much of the long-term direction of the cow herd starts with the sires used to generate replacement females. “From a genetics perspective, it comes to making sure that we select the right bulls to go into those replacement female genetics.”
He says producers should remember there are two major sources of genetic improvement available to them. “We can think about really two sources of genetic variation that are influential in beef cows.”
The first is additive genetics—traits passed from parents to offspring and measured through EPDs and indexes. “The additive component. EPD is in selection index that models transmission of genetics from parent to offspring.”
The second is heterosis, or hybrid vigor, which Weaber says remains one of the most valuable and underused tools in commercial production. “The other component is non additive, or heterosis effects.”
Weaber adds “I seldom pass an opportunity to talk about cross breeding and heterosis as a value contributor to cow efficiency and profitability.”
Calf Crop Percentage Drives Profitability
Weaber says producers often underestimate how much money can be gained simply by improving reproductive performance. “The number of calves that we get on the ground relative to the number of cows we turned out with bulls previous breeding season has a big impact on revenue stream and ultimately profitability in the cow calf operation.”
He offered a practical example using a 100-cow herd. Moving from an 83 percent weaning rate to 90 percent means seven more calves to sell.
“That’s seven calves, right?” At today’s values, those added calves can make a significant difference. “Maybe to the tune of about $15,000, $16,000 of additional revenue just off those seven calves at a weaning endpoint.”
Weaber says small improvements in herd benchmarks often create major downstream returns. “Those modest changes in inventory based numbers manifest themselves as pretty significant revenue differences downstream.”
Pounds Pay the Bills
No matter how cattle are marketed, Weaber says pounds and head count remain the ultimate drivers of income. “No matter how you sell calves, gross pay weight drives the bus, right?”
He says negotiating price matters, but producers must first have calves and pounds available to market. “We can negotiate price, but if I don’t deliver head and pounds to the market space, I never get paid for them.”
That is why he encourages measuring output on a whole-herd basis, not just looking at individual weaning weights. “Things like weaning weight per cow exposed, for example, versus actual weaning weights.” He says measurements that account for open cows, losses, and missed opportunities provide much better benchmarks than gross averages alone.
Right-Sizing the Cow Herd
Weaber also says mature cow size must match the available forage and resources. “Managing cow body weight as a proxy for maintenance requirement and resource utilization is critical.”
Larger cows often require more feed and can reduce the number of cows a ranch can carry. Right-sized females can improve stocking density and overall returns. “It clearly favors increasing stocking density at a cow calf operation to improve profitability.”
He adds that matching cow size to the environment also helps body condition and fertility. “We know there’s a direct link between body condition score and expected reproductive performance of those cows.”
Crossbred Cows Still Offer Big Advantages
As producers evaluate breeding systems, Weaber says crossbreeding should remain a serious consideration, especially on the maternal side. “Cross breeding is a tool that’s well researched and well documented and has important contributions to our beef selection system.”
While straightbred concentration may fit some terminal carcass-focused programs, he says commercial cow herds still gain major advantages from hybrid vigor. “Certainly at the Cow Level, crossbred cows have some huge advantages in terms of system level productivity that we need to capture.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
