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 theses heifers takes place before you will get any return. This can be risky for some producers because you are spending money on 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 straight 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 out ahead of the curve. You will be able to visualize what all will go into your heifer development program and see what areas will need help on.
The main thing that you will see by simply writing out what you would need is if it will even be worh 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 raising 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 out of this is to look at it honestly and not what you would like to be able to do.
You should look at what facilities that you have and if they are up to the task. Also you should take into account what feed resources that 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 determing if your new program will succeed or not.
One way to look at this is to think of it as like a job posting for a company. In that job posting they will have what qualifications that know the candidate should posses 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 to 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 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 giver 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 that 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 that you will need to supplement for.
When it comes to supplementing it is of benefit for you to provide them before any visual signs of deficiency has occured. If you wait too long then it will cost you more because your cows are trying to “catch up”.
I talk about the importance of nutrition after calving in another post here.
