The BeefWatch Webinar Series is designed to highlight management strategies in grazing, nutrition, reproduction, and economics to increase cow/calf and stocker production efficiency and profitability. Each session will feature industry experts and plenty of opportunity to interact to get your questions answered. More information about the BeefWatch Webinar Series can be found on our webpage: https://beef.unl.edu/beefwatch-webinar-series.
For bulls coming out of the breeding season, body weight loss may have occurred, and we need to make sure that we get bulls back in condition before the next season. Also, with the weather starting to change, starting to think about how we are going to manage our breeding bulls through the winter to prepare them for the next breeding season will be important. This will be a good time to evaluate body condition and ensure that bulls have adequate protection from harsh weather.
When looking at annual cow costs and doing an economic analysis, three categories tend to make up the largest percentage of total costs: feed, labor/equipment and cow depreciation. Other expenses occur, such as breeding expense and veterinary costs, but they tend to be significantly less than the “Big Three.” To conduct an economic analysis, break the ranch into enterprises to understand where value is being created and costs are occurring. Land ownership, hay production, cow-calf and replacement heifer development are four of the major enterprises on many ranches.
