- coffelt wrote:
- Jack McNamee wrote:
- [quote="coffelt"
Culling 10% of the cows per year, will produce a beautiful, near problem free herd in 4 years. The fourth year you will have to be very picky to come up with 10%. Every problem leaves the farm
10% per year doesn't sound like very much to me. We easily cull 10% per year just on old cows, opens, and cows that lose a calf during calving. What do you consider a cull? It sounds to me like you are doing a lot better job selecting your sires than culling cows.
Jack
My calving window is 60 days, not 45. Any cow that is outside the 60 day window is culled after they wean their (late) calf, cows that lose their calves I breed back and sell.
I use calving ease bulls and have almost no calving problems, 1 out of 300 calves will need assistance
I calve the heifers in April when the whether is warmer, after the cows, which I believe saves some calves
I do not cull for age, I have the most respect for an old, producing cow, that stays in flesh. I want her daughters in my herd
I have a young herd, the average age is probably 5 or 6 years old, I have not culled a single cow for age/mouth for a couple years, this will add to my culling percentage as my herd ages. Using 15 as an age factor, culls for age/mouth would would be 6.6% with no other factor. My 10% does not account for age/mouth culls simply because I have'nt had any.
100% of the genetics are Pharo and Keeney, it is impossible to know the effect on performance genetics might have, but I am sure it is significant.
5-7% are open, late, or lose a calf.
The additional culls, 3-5%, are herd improvent culls, this is probably the point of our conversation, relative to herd improvement
Ohio is not nearly the harsh envirement that Montana or Alberta is, please always accept my comments as coming from the Midwest
10% is aggressive in our envirement, considering the age of this herd.
The right number in Montana with an older herd very well might be 20% or higher. A friend of mine is in the business of buying old, bred cows, getting a calf or 2, and salvaging the cow. He culls 50% per year
The answer to the proper culling percentage is: It depends on the age of the herd, harshness of the envirement, genetics , and calving window length
[/quote]
Cows that last till they are 15, only helping 1 in 300, 5-7% open, late or lose a calf, even on a 60 day calving window, 3-5% for herd improvement. With all due respect, I still think you are giving far too much credit to culling and too little credit to the job you are doing with your genetic selection. I agree with Mike, without proper genetic selection culling is like bailing water out of a boat with a hole in it.