Heifer development can be one of the most challenging yet also rewarding tasks that can occur on the ranch. The very basis of your future depends on your ability to develop the young heifers into productive mothers. But these challenges do not come without problems.
What makes this challenging is the cost of producing these heifers takes place before you will get any return. This can be risky for some producers because you are spending money in the hopes that she will be able to “earn her keep”. This may be challenging but that doesn’t mean that it has to be difficult. If you plan your heifer development right it can be a very simple procedure.
Here are some steps that you can follow to make this much easier for you and your sanity:
Develop a plan
Now, this might seem pretty straightforward forward but there are many people who do not take the time to put “pen to paper” and properly plan out what they are going to do. Doing this one simple step will help you by putting you ahead of the curve. You will be able to visualize what will go into your heifer development program and see what areas will need help.
The main thing that you will see by simply writing out what you would need is if it will even be worth your time and resources to do it. There are some cases where it would be cheaper for a producer to buy bred first-calf heifers rather than raise them. The one thought that you should keep in mind while doing this is what time and resources are you willing to commit to it.
What I would stress the most about this is to look at it honestly and not what you would like to be able to do.
You should look at what facilities you have and if they are up to the task. Also, you should take into account what feed resources you have available on the ranch. Things like the amount and quality of your forages are what you should be thinking about here.
Choose the right heifer for development
Now that you have looked at what resources you have available and that it will be worth your time you should look at selecting the right heifer for this. Selecting the right heifer is paramount in determining if your new program will succeed or not.
One way to look at this is to think of it as a job posting for a company. In that job posting, they will have what qualifications they know the candidate should possess in order to do the job effectively. It is the same when selecting what heifers to purchase or keep.
The selection process that you will use should have a set of minimum qualifications. These are traits that you feel are needed to help you in making your ranch profitable. Things like minimum body weight, minimum age, and structural soundness are some traits that you could use. What these qualifications are is entirely up to you and what you need so don’t worry about being too strict.
Ideally, everyone would like to have a heifer that will breed early and raise a healthy calf every time. I would say that if a heifer is not able to do this then you should look at culling her.
Make sure the heifer is ready for breeding
Though a certain heifer may check off all of the boxes that you are looking for she will do you no good if she isn’t able to be bred. In order to give her the best chance you will need to make sure that she has reached puberty and has started to cycle before your planned breeding season has started.
The three main factors that affect the timing of puberty are:
- breed
- age
- body weight
In most breeds puberty typically occurs between 12 and 14 months of age. If she will not be reaching this age by your breeding season begins then you will need to get rid of her. Studies have shown that “late breeders” are not as productive over their lifetime compared to the ones that breed early in the season.
Regardless of breed, the heifer should weigh approximately 65% of her expected mature body weight before she can hit puberty. If you are having trouble getting the heifers to reach this in time then you have to look at changing the nutrition amount that you are providing them or….. start selecting for smaller framed cows.
Importance of nutrition for heifer development
Getting a first-calf heifer ready for her 2nd breeding can be more difficult than for her 1st. She has a higher nutritional requirement amount because not only is she nursing a calf but she is still growing herself. Being in the right body condition when she calves will be critical.
Knowing the nutrients that your forages provide beforehand is important. This will let you know what nutrients may be lacking and which ones you will need to supplement.
When it comes to supplementing it is of benefit for you to provide them before any visual signs of deficiency have occurred. If you wait too long then it will cost you more because your cows are trying to “catch up”.
The benefits of forage raised
As I mentioned earlier one benefit of raising heifers on forage is the reduced costs. At the time of breeding, forage-raised heifers reach breeding age at about 80 to 100lbs lighter than the others. And they will be in better body condition because they have already gotten used to eating forages.
Now you may be asking “but what about the break-even point?“. According to these studies, the forage-raised heifers became profitable at 3 to 4 years of age. The heifers developed conventionally didn’t pay for themselves till 9 to 10 years.
Another advantage to low-cost development is these heifers will last longer in the cowherd. Research from New Mexico and Montana showed that 30 to 60% of these heifers were still in the herd after 5 years of age. So basically not only do they pay for themselves quicker but they are still producing longer.
Once that heifer has a calf on the ground that does not mean that you can slack off on the nutrition. Because she will be going into lactation her needs will actually be even greater. I talk more on this subject in a previous post “Importance of nutrition after calving”.
