Nearly everyone in the beef industry knows that we have the lowest number of beef cows in the U.S. in over 60 years. Herd expansion likely occurs in areas of the country with sufficient feed resources. Selecting and developing the “right kind” of female is key to ensuring their long-term profitability.

A recent research study showed that the three main factors in ensuring profitability were longevity, efficiency and hybrid vigor.

From the time a heifer calf is born until she weans her first calf at about 30 months later, she is an expense to the beef business. If she has only a few calves, she never pays for those 30 months of development. If she has many calves, then the math works. It is like having three tests in a class and you fail the first one. There is not time to dig yourself out of the hole to get a good grade. On the contrary, if you have 10 tests and bomb the first one, you have plenty of other opportunities to get an excellent grade. In beef production, longevity matters. A good test is to determine the average age of your cowherd. If the average is 7.5-8.5, you are in the sweet spot. If your average age is younger than this, increasing longevity should be a goal.

Efficient cows eat less forage per pound of calf weaned than their herdmates. Our average cow weight has increased 250# over the past 40 years and weaning weights have only increased 25#. Why? Forage supply has a much larger impact on weaning weight than cow weight. Many studies show that for each additional 100# of cow weight, weaning weight rises by only 10#. That math doesn’t work. Moderation is the key in cow size. Too small = calves with poor growth. Too big = cows that eat too much.

Most beef producers I work with have a fixed land base. Yes, we can greatly improve pasture efficiency by practicing management-intensive or rotational grazing, but if there are only 50 acres of pasture, I can have more 1,250# cows on that pasture than 1,500# cows. The greater number of more moderate cows will wean off more total pounds than fewer, larger cows, and that is the metric I want to measure. Instead of bragging about weaning weights, I want my producers to look at pounds of calf weaned per acre.

Hybrid vigor has been called the only “free lunch” of the beef industry. Research from Kansas State shows that a crossbred cow will generate over $400 more revenue each year compared to a purebred cow. The number one reason for this extra profit? Longevity. A crossbred cow is productive for 1.2 years longer than a straightbred cow. I looked at the genetics of the largest 25 commercial cow herds in the U.S., and 96 percent have crossbred cows.

The number of commercial females being DNA tested continues to grow. When I analyze the data for the herds I work with, I look closely at stayability (a measure of longevity), calving ease, docility and growth. Herd owners who retain ownership and sell freezer beef need to look at tenderness and marbling. Both companies that offer DNA testing also either give a breed breakdown by percentage or a score that measures heterosis. If you are unsure of your heifers’ genetics, these tests make sense.

After we select heifers with longevity, efficiency and hybrid vigor bred in, we need to develop them well.

I see one of three scenarios regarding heifer development in my beef consultations.

The most common is adequate development and subsequent pregnancy rates. These heifers are at 55-65 percent of mature body weight at breeding, and these producers achieve a 90-93 percent pregnancy rate in a 30-42-day breeding season.

Side note: The “old” recommendation was to be at 65 percent of mature weight at breeding and this will indeed give the maximum number of heifers bred. The “new” thinking is: “I don’t want to have a female that needs much more feed than her herdmates in order to get bred as she is a prime candidate to be open at 30 months when she is supposed to be bred back for her second calf.” Remember the No. 1 factor in a profitable female? Longevity!

If your average cow weighs 1,450# (very typical for the Midwest), 55-60 percent of mature weight is 800-870#.

Many studies show that a heifer that calves in the first cycle (21 days) of the season is significantly more likely to stay in the herd for many years than a heifer that calves later. If you breed heifers for longer than 42 days you are selecting heifers that have poorer inherent fertility. A study in Texas with 1,500 heifers showed that heifers that calved in the first 21 days of the calving season had an ROI of 10.7 percent, and those that calved days 22-42 had an ROI of -0.7 percent. Those that calved later lost a significant amount of money. Don’t start with a loser. Breed heifers for 42 days maximum and watch herd fertility soar.

I see more heifers in the Midwest that are overdeveloped than underdeveloped, so let’s talk about those first.

A typical scenario is that the spring-born heifer is weaned in October and put into a drylot on a moderate energy ration. We have selected for plenty of growth for years, and even on a moderate-energy diet, these heifers gain quite well. If she weighed 500# on Oct. 1 and we have a target breeding date of June 5, she has 247 days to make breeding weight. At a steady gain, that is 1.5#/day to reach 870#. Many times, these heifers end up gaining 2-2.5#/day and weigh 1,000# on April 20 (45 days prebreeding) when we turn them out on grass. The spring grass is “washy” and the heifers cannot consume enough dry matter to meet their energy needs. What happens to a cycling heifer when she starts to lose weight? She stops cycling. Her body signals to her that times are tough and she doesn’t have enough to eat, let alone enough to support the calories it takes to cycle and develop a fetus. I have seen herds where this was the scenario and less than 10 percent of the heifers get bred the first cycle. Ouch!

If this is your herd, I have a plan that has worked well for others. A month after weaning, kick the potential replacements out to corn crop residue or stockpiled grass for about 60 days. The heifers may gain nothing in these 60 days, and that is fine. I do this with my heifers and one year all the heifers except one gained 0-40# in the 60 days on stalks. One heifer lost almost 100#. I looked at her and thought, “She is going to be a hard-keeping female that always needs some extra feed. I don’t think that is going to work in my herd.” I implanted her and put her in the feedlot.

After the 60-day period of “roughing it,” we still have about 185 days until breeding time. If they still weigh 500# and we want them to be at 850# at breeding on June 5, they only need to gain 1.9#/day. That should be very doable with a ration of hay along with some DDGS, soyhulls, corn or commercial feed. Make sure to add an appropriate salt-mineral mix and have Rumensin at 200mg/head/day in the ration to improve feed efficiency.

Now we have a development system where the heifer should have cycled – maybe more than once – before breeding and she is gaining weight. Now her brain says, “It looks like nutrition is good and getting pregnant is no problem.”

The scenario I see occasionally is that the heifers have been underdeveloped during the winter and they are not in condition to start cycling. While the initiation of estrus is a complex process, having heifers at approximately 17 percent empty body fat is associated with puberty.

I frequently say that “pregnancy is a luxury,” and this was never clearer than when I was in Ethiopia working with Project Mercy. This Christian-based organization helps people in Ethiopia produce more food. They have a cattle-breeding project to improve the nutrition and genetics of their cattle. Their native cattle generally have their first calf at age 5. That shocked me, since in the U.S. it is 2 years of age. They had some native breed, yearling heifers there that we weighed, and they averaged just over 200#. The heifers got one suckle of milk, morning and night, and all the straw they could eat. Getting pregnant was not on their agenda.

This is an extreme case, but it illustrates that nutrition is one of the keys to initiating estrus. If you are not seeing a significant percentage of your heifers cycling one-two months before breeding, they likely need more feed. Talk to your nutritionist or feed supplier to develop a ration that gets heifers to 55-60 percent of mature body weight at breeding.

I have also seen cases where calves were not dewormed at weaning, and the parasite load is quite high. Internal parasites are “stealing” nutrition from the heifers. Be sure to deworm your calves at weaning, based on your herd health veterinarian’s recommendation.

Heifer selection and development are key to building a profitable beef business. The goal is not simply to get heifers pregnant, but to develop moderate, efficient, crossbred females that conceive early, calve unassisted, breed back promptly and remain productive for many years. Select for longevity, fertility, calving ease, docility and appropriate growth; develop heifers to approximately 55–60 percent of mature weight while ensuring they are gaining weight at breeding; and limit the breeding season to 42 days. Retaining heifers that conceive early under the same conditions in which they will be expected to produce will improve the long-term productivity and profitability of the herd.