Raising replacement heifers is more than just another task on the ranch.It is a major investment in your herd’s future. Each heifer you keep needs to prove herself by making it through feeding, pasture, labor, breeding, calving, and breeding back again before she truly earns her place.
That is why you need to think beyond just, “She looks good, so let’s keep her,” when developing heifers.
Think of a replacement heifer as applying for a job on your ranch. She needs to do more than just get bred once. She should breed early, calve easily, raise a strong calf, breed back, and fit the environment where you run your cattle.
That is a high standard, and it is important to keep it that way.
It is a mistake to assume every good-looking heifer automatically belongs in your herd. She needs to meet your operation’s requirements; not your neighbor’s, not a sale catalog’s, and not outdated rules that do not fit your forage or budget.
Developing good heifers is not about raising the biggest one. It is about raising the right kind of female at a cost your ranch can handle.
September often tempts you to squeeze in one more pasture rotation. With the calves gone, cows still need feed, and there’s still green under the seedheads. Keeping them in that paddock another week might save hay or put off using winter pasture.
Weaning in September can reveal any weaknesses in your calf management. Calves are separated from their mothers, moved to new pastures or pens, and must adjust to new feed and water setups. They also face dust, changing temperatures, and lower forage quality. If you add processing or a sudden change in feed, a calm calf can quickly need treatment.
If you have spent any time running cattle in West Texas, you know not to count on the rain.
Every rancher knows how fast hay can disappear once cold fronts start rolling through.
September often makes wheat pasture seem like a quick way to earn money. Someone at the feed store mentions that calves should gain well this winter; a bit of rain moistens the ground, and soon everyone is eager to start planting.
September in West Texas can be misleading. Although the pasture still has brown grass, the cows are scattered about, and one rain may bring a bit of green to the low areas. It might look from the truck as though there is enough feed to carry on into the fall.
Bovine Respiratory Disease, or BRD, can become a very costly situation quite quickly; one day a calf may appear to be healthy but by the next it could be standing by itself with droopy ears, a lowered head, and more heavy breathing.
It may still seem like summer in August, but that is precisely the time when you should begin considering winter cattle management.
On a cow-calf ranch, August always seems to arrive out of nowhere. One day, you’re busy keeping water troughs full, fighting flies, and making sure calves have shade during the hottest hours. Suddenly, you check the calendar and realize fall sale season is much closer than it seemed in June. Calves that looked healthy in July can quickly lose condition if they’re weaned, vaccinated, worked, transported, and sold all at once. In West Texas and the Southern Plains, heat, dust, dry pens, long trailer rides, and mixing at the sale barn all put extra stress on a calf’s immune system. That’s why August is the right time to start getting calves ready before all the stress hits at once.
