Therefore, many producers might be compromising their cows’ reproductive performance. Many of these cows often fail to return to active estrus and fail to get rebred and finally become pregnant. Rather than go down this wrong road, producers should review their current mineral-vitamin program and choose one that drives successful reproduction.

Before I make any recommendation to producers as to what kind of mineral-vitamin feeding program is a good choice, most people should conduct a body assessment of each cow and calved-out heifer.

I advocate that all nursing animals should maintain a visible cow’s body condition score (BCS) of five to six (out of 10) by calving, which should be carried on to the end of the breeding season. Such adequate BCS has been research-proven to return a higher proportion of fertile beef cows compared to thin cows (BCS less than four) to active-strong estrus by 80 to 90 days postpartum. Strong estrus should result in highly successful conception rates.

Most mineral and vitamin requirements of even the best-bodied nursing cows and heifers soar as they return to active heat cycles in preparation for conception during a short 60-day breeding season. Postpartum cows’ calcium needs increase by nearly 100 per cent, while phosphorus, magnesium and trace mineral demands grow by 50-60 per cent, and the need for fat-soluble vitamins more than doubles.

For example, the requirement for manganese is about 400 milligrams per day per cow. Known to be involved in enzyme systems that drive follicular/egg development, a lack of dietary manganese is proven to lead to inactive estrus, or “silent heats.” Given that Canadian prairie grasses often contain less than 20 mg/kg manganese, the need for manganese supplementation in a typical cowherd diet is necessary.

In order to assure manganese and other essential mineral/vitamin requirements are achieved, I recommend a “breeder” cattle mineral be fed from calving and throughout the upcoming beef breeding season. Consequently, this type of special cattle mineral is a specific complement of macro-minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium) as well as a high level of trace minerals in particular copper, zinc, manganese and selenium, fortified at the best concentrations as well as in highly bioavailable chelated forms. Once these macro- and trace minerals are consumed at three to four ounces per head daily, they are designed to reach the cows’ digestive tract, where they are quickly absorbed, efficiently metabolized and highly retained to build optimum mineral status.

I have met many producers who believe in feeding such a breeder cattle mineral after their calving season is done — but some of them modify it to tackle specific nutritional mineral issues such as “grass tetany” on lush pasture.

In these cases, this breeder mineral can be formulated with four to 12 per cent magnesium and fed during the high-risk period of the first two to three weeks of the grazing season. Other producers I’ve known have added extra copper to the same breeder mineral to combat secondary copper deficiencies caused by excessive amounts of copper-binding molybdenum found in their pasture grasses.

All such types of well-balanced cattle minerals/vitamins should be placed in proper mineral feeders and be accessible to all cows. The feeders should be protected from rain, wind, sunshine and sometimes defecating cows. I am the biggest fan of a two- or three-compartment durable heavy-duty plastic feeder with a fixed metal bar in the centre, which secures a weather-proof rubber flap.

The best ones have notches moulded into the base to bolt it down on top of a truck tire and keep it out of water and mud. Then, two bags of mineral and one bag of salt can be poured into the separate compartments and checked every few days to be cleaned and refilled.

A few springs ago, a friend of mine bought two brand-new blue mineral feeders with the black rubber flaps. He operates a 100-cow red Angus herd and routinely feeds a breeder mineral fortified with extra organic zinc in order to strengthen hooves of the cow herd by the breeding season.

The offbeat thing is that he used to feed this cattle mineral in the trunk of a wheel-less 1962 Oldsmobile found in his yard. He would put out three bags of mineral each week in this way until one day the cattle abruptly stopped eating it. That’s because a fox gave birth to her pups in the back and prevented cattle from sticking their heads in.

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My thoughts shifted from the skies to them, and I thought they were in pretty good body condition and would be ready, if they were to calve in a couple of months. They only needed to retain this condition with the help of some well-balanced diets once they are nursing a new calf and looking forward to be successfully re-bred. That means they should maintain a visible body condition score (BCS) of 5 to 6 (out of 10) by calving, which should be carried to the end of their breeding season. Such adequate BCS is research-proven to return a higher proportion of fertile beef cows compared to thin cows (BCS less than 4) to a strong estrus 80 to 90 days post-partum, which ends in high conception rates. Their next-year’s calves, which are born earlier in a desired short-calving season, also result in higher autumn weaning weights (by as much as 23-25 kg).

The average cow produces about 10 litres of milk for a newborn calf (about 60 to 75 per cent of all milk is produced in the first few months post-calving). To feed the calf and retain body condition requires a good solid intake of essential nutrients. First-calf heifers also need more of the same nutrients to gain a couple of hundred pounds of weight as they grow into maturity.

Consequently, an average nursing beef cow requires about 25 to 50 per cent more energy, 20 to 25 per cent more protein and nearly double the minerals and vitamins compared to an early gestating beef cow. Her post-calving forage-based diet at this time should contain about 58 to 62 per cent total digestible nutrients, 11 to 12 per cent protein, 0.7 per cent calcium and 0.5 per cent phosphorus, with a fortified compliment of other macro- and trace minerals and vitamins. Such NRC requirements are also based upon the same cow consuming about two to 2.25 per cent of her body weight (dry matter basis) or about 10 to 13 kg of dry-based feed. The more traditional cow herds that calve out at the beginning of February to the middle of March, the coldest months of the season, will be further be challenged nutritionally. As noted by university and extension researchers’ cold weather rule of thumb: for every 1 C drop in temperature below 0 C, the beef cows’ TDN (total digestible nutrients) energy maintenance requirements are increased by about two per cent.

A few years ago on the same subject, I asked a few beef producers how they successfully maintained their cows, which calved out during the coldest months of winter at a BCS of five to six.. This is how they responded to me:

• 250 beef cows: The producer feeds a traditional overwinter diet of 35-40 lbs. of good quality alfalfa-grass wrapped hay to his Simmental x black Angus herd. Once they calve, three to four pounds of barley are supplemented. Three to four ounces of a 1:1 breeder cattle mineral with salt are fed on the side.

• 200 beef cows: This beef producer’s purebred red Angus brood and first-calf cows are fed a total mixed ration (TMR) of 20 lbs. of corn silage (with lots of grain) and 25-30 lbs. of second-cut alfalfa hay, mixed with four ounces of a 3:1 vitamin premix with monensin. A few pounds of extra grain are only fed when the windchill temperature dips below -25 C.

• 220 beef herd of crossbred Herefords: This couple feeds an overwinter total mixed ration of 25 lbs. of barley silage and 20 lbs, alfalfa/grass hay. They grain-feed at two to five pounds of grain and usually feed even another pound or so when the windchill temperature dips below -18 C. As the weather gets warmer and the cow herd is past 60 days post-partum, grain feeding is eliminated; also, less barley silage is fed and is replaced by lower-protein grass hay.

Most beef producers, including these three testimonials, often estimate the amount of feed they will need for the winter, first feeding their early-mid gestation cows the lower-quality feeds such as straw-based diets or fair-quality grass-type hays, where cow requirements are modest.

Then, as the calving season approaches, they implement more nutritious saved feeds in their diets such as legume/alfalfa hays and ensiled (higher-energy) forages such as barley silage.

Once the cows calve and their nutrient requirements are at their highest point, depending on forage quality, they bring out their all-star diets, similar to those post-calving diets examined above.

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While traditionally the realm of the seedstock industry, commercial DNA testing and changes in the way we manage cattle have led to some big changes in how we think about genetic selection. DNA testing, in broad terms, means using a DNA sample from an animal and performing laboratory testing on that sample to identify parts of the genome that animal contains.

A brief outline of the process: DNA testing starts by collecting a tissue sample or hair follicles from an animal. This sample is then sent to a laboratory where the DNA is extracted and “read.”

New tests will typically read 50,000 to 100,000 pieces of an animal’s DNA. While we have the capability to read millions or even billions of DNA pieces, with 50,000 to 100,000 we can do a really good job of identifying important genetic characteristics of the animal at an affordable price point. Some of the DNA pieces we read are “associated” with specific traits. For example, if a calf carries two copies of the polled gene, specific pieces of DNA will “light up.”

For another example: we may know specific pieces of DNA that are associated with longevity. By looking directly to see if these variants of DNA are present, we can assess the genetic potential of the animal being tested for longevity.

DNA testing can range from sire verification at a roughly $20 price point, specific characteristic testing such as horned/polled or colour at additional cost, or broader trait evaluation at $40 and up. This broader spectrum can include measures of longevity, growth, hybrid vigour, feed efficiency or other traits. Additionally, these slightly higher cost tests can also be used in genetic evaluations (calculation of EPD).

There are various ways we can use this information and incorporate it into our commercial operations.

1 – Use DNA-tested sires

One of the easiest ways for a commercial producer to benefit from DNA testing is to purchase sires that have been DNA-tested prior to sale. This has several benefits. First, the pedigree on the bull being purchased is confirmed with DNA testing, meaning you are getting the DNA you expect when you purchase a sire.

Secondly, high-density DNA testing can be used in genetic evaluation to increase the accuracy of the EPD on the sire you are buying. The inclusion of high-density DNA in a genetic evaluation is roughly equivalent to the knowledge gained from a full calf crop. In other words, DNA can increase the accuracy of EPDs and reduce the risk to a commercial buyer of ending up with the wrong bull for their needs. Finally, when a sire is tested, those DNA results reside in a computer, and we may not need to retest the sire if we wish to start testing in our own cowherd and learning about factors such as sire efficiency and parentage.

2 – DNA-test replacement heifers

A way to get into DNA over time is to focus on testing replacement heifers. In a perfect world, we would test all candidate heifers, then use DNA-derived information to aid in our selection decisions; however, if we’re really constricted on budget, the next best choice might be to test the heifers we choose to breed. Testing heifers allows us over time to develop a fully tested cow herd.

3 – Test the cow herd

This is a full-on commitment, to collect DNA from every cow and begin using the resulting information to inform management decisions. Again, if budget is a concern, there may be groups of cows more valuable to test than others. For example, if you have a set of cows used to generate herd replacements, then these may be a priority for testing over a terminal type set of cows.

4 – Test the calf crop

This approach involves testing all calves (steers and heifers) and can be used for determining management or parentage verification to track cattle through to harvest with full individual data. This results in heifers entering the cowherd over time that are tested, and may also enable tracking of feeder calves on an individual basis with accurate pedigree.

The balance of investment in testing versus the potential return to management is going to vary tremendously across operations and will also impact the number of cattle tested, which cattle are tested, and the types of tests used.

Sire verification is an example. We may want to run multi-sire pastures and determine both which sires are working, but also only keep replacement heifers from specific bulls. Or we may want to step up an extra level and obtain DNA marker test results for various traits we can use to select replacements.

We may further refine our use of the technology to develop a total genetic management program, in which we pre-emptively mate specific sires and dams and match DNA with targeted end points in mind.

DNA testing is continually improving and accelerating the pace with which we can advance our operations, and is a technology that likely fits your operation today, although at varying degrees for individual farms, even if it’s simply through purchasing tested sires.

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Yet, nobody should open the gate to any field and allow cows to stampede into it. That’s because there are still some issues in order to make grazing standing corn a good winter forage. I recommend that a mid-winter review of any such feeding program be made to assure all cowherd requirements for essential nutrients are met.

For example, the higher dietary energy of standing corn makes it nutritionally more attractive as compared to other common overwinter forages, as illustrated in the table here.

I recognize that the nutrient requirements of mid-gestation cows need 52-55 per cent TDN and about eight to nine per cent crude protein on a daily basis to maintain an optimum body condition of 5 to 6 and an early-term fetus.

As they move into the last trimester of pregnancy (where 75 per cent fetal growth occurs), pre-calving cows need 56-58 per cent TDN and about 11-12 per cent protein. It seems to me corn grazing will cover both phases of dietary energy requirements.

Unfortunately, cows grazing standing-corn acres as their source of overwinter feed will barely meet crude protein requirements during mid-gestation and fail to meet them during late-gestation.

READ MORE: Intercropping corn for better shoulder season grazing

That’s why there are many commercial protein supplements that help complement a gestation beef feeding program based on grazing corn fields. For example, many producers purchase protein range cubes/pellets, often made from high-protein distillers’ grains or 20 to 30 per cent protein cattle lick-tubs, that can be placed for every 25 beef cows throughout the cornfield.

Supplementing protein to grazing corn seems like a straightforward fix; however, I’ve talked to many producers and they tell me there are other unique hurdles. Here are some of their experiences to overcome them.

Field acidosis

One producer moves his 150 black Angus cows, from one grazed paddock to a fresh paddock of 10 acres, every week. In this way, he prevents acidosis upsets, since palatable ears of corn are eaten first (two to three days), then the leaves and thin stalks (two to three days), and finally leftover hard stalks.

Mould and mycotoxins

During a particularly wet fall, I drove past a field of standing corn in which its leaves were literarily blue with surface mould. To prevent abortions possibly caused by potential mycotoxins, I formulated a mineral with mycotoxin binders that was fed to this cowherd grazing within its blue corn field acres.

Water intake

Many producers rely upon adequate snowfall throughout the winter to meet the natural water requirements of their grazing beef cows. In one particular case, there isn’t enough snow, so the producer dug a water line and placed an accessible waterer along the corn field near his home farm.

Mineral program

Corn plants are notoriously low in calcium content. Since a beef cow requires up to 30 grams of calcium per day (as well as other macro- and micro-minerals and vitamins) a well-balanced high-calcium/modest phosphorus commercial mineral should be provided at 70 to 100 grams per head per day.

Cold weather

As the winter weather becomes much colder; the beef cows’ dietary energy requirement, just to stay warm, increases by two per cent for every 1 C drop in temperature below 0 C. This means that when the outside temperature is -25 C, the cow’s energy requirements increase by 50 per cent. To remedy this issue, many producers provide energy-enriched supplementary feeds.

One producer told me that he did not set aside and grow 200 acres of standing corn fields that he normally would have planted in the last 10 years. Instead, he planted and set up barley swaths (nutrient value also outlined in the table here).

The reason for the switch: three years of drought had led to not enough corn biomass on its own merit to overwinter his 350 beef cows.

The way this producer and other people still assess it, grazing standing corn is a good forage to overwinter beef cows. Its success depends upon how well its nutrition (and overcoming hurdles) keep the cow herd in good body condition until calving time — more specifically, when a healthy cow gives birth to a vibrant newborn calf.

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First as a reminder, Figure 1 here shows the general shape of the cow depreciation curve from birth, and the depreciated value of an animal that does not make the cut.

Early in life a heifer is worth what she sells for as a weaned calf or a feeder. In this example, we are assuming a bred heifer has more value than an open feeder heifer.

When that heifer calves, she is hopefully worth at least as much as when she was a bred heifer, and she probably retains that value for at least a couple of years until she starts to age out of the cow herd or comes up open.

The depreciation on an individual cow is represented by the space between the orange and blue lines. In traditional thought, the earlier a cow falls out of the herd, the greater that loss, as we have not had time to recover our establishment expenses on that cow (growing, weaning, breeding, getting into production).

Open cows are a problem, particularly two-year-olds as is visible by the huge gap between the blue value line and the orange cull line on two-year-olds (coming three).

This is not a lot different than what has been written before. However, it assumes one thing: that prices are relatively constant — and they have been anything but the last couple of years. If we look at Canfax values over the last few years, we can see some meteoric change in prices, but in the background, there are also some meteoric changes to cow depreciation.

For this example (Figure 2 here), I used the average of November/December prices from 2012 to 2024 (note that 2024 only includes November pricing) from Canfax for western Canadian bred heifers, bred cows and Alberta D1/2 cows. I assumed that heifers were 1,200 lbs. as two- to three-year-olds, and cows were 1,500 lbs. I assumed cows entered the herd valued as average-priced bred heifers. When we graph the depreciation out on these cows, we get a very different picture than is shown in the depreciation curve in Figure 1.

Depreciation is usually negative; however, if we look at today’s pricing, it’s evident there are very real value increase in many of these cows. As of the time of writing, most classes of cattle have appreciated in value, with older cows being among the highest for appreciation. This is largely because they were brought into the herd at a very low cost, in the middle of a low point in the cattle cycle.

There are a couple of important parts to this graph that are worth noting. First, the difference between the top line and the bottom line reflects that cost and importance of getting cows bred. Open cows have a tremendous value loss. The second thing to focus on is the Open line on three-year-olds and 10- to 11-year-olds.

Even with historically high prices, both of these groups still show depreciation, and it is around $225 of loss for each category of cow. If we look deeper into what is going on here, these cows entered the herd near the top of the cattle cycle. The potential for depreciation is higher when the initial purchase cost is higher.

Finally, it is important to remember that these are values based on cattle in a herd today. It is very unlikely you have all of the heifers from 10 years ago still in your cow herd, and you have already taken depreciation on a lot of the cattle that have come through your operation in the last decade or more, at much greater expense than today.

It is also important to remember that depreciation is offset by production. A cow that is nearly fully depreciated today is likely producing the highest-valued calf of her lifetime, given current markets. How the market impacts depreciation — and potentially your strategies to manage forward — is worth considering in both good times and bad.

Every cow herd has different strategies and different pricing structures, so this example only applies in a broad sense across the spectrum of industry, but awareness of depreciation can be a key driver of ranch profitability.

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This has been happening for a lot longer in the purebred cattle industry and a lot of the reasons are the same.

If one is considering AI in cattle or increasing what you do, this article will review the pros, then outline some other considerations.

There has always been a very high percentage of dairy cattle bred with AI. Dairy farmers now use the best genetics for milk production with sexed semen and then on lower-end cows with beef bulls in an AI program.

There are also several marketers of beef bulls where the cost differs, depending if one is using semen in commercial cattle or purebred cattle herds.

Artificial insemination has always been a way to individually match the cow to a bull deemed to be the best fit. A producer who likes specific genetics and wants to steer the growth of his or her herd in a certain direction can accomplish their goals quickly with AI.

What has allowed more people to use this well-established technology is the fact that synchronized breeding of groups makes efficient use of labour and handling facilities. The labour of heat detection is somewhat gone, but not entirely. You can make the best usage of AI technicians and top-end bulls can be owned and utilized by several owners. One owner may have the walking rights and others can use semen collected from these bulls.

There is a lot more collection of bulls’ semen for owners’ use only by AI service providers and other CFIA-licensed veterinarians. If a bull has multiple shared owners, they all can use this owners’-use-only semen, as they are legitimate owners of the bull.

Synchronization protocols have improved over the years, whereby most in the beef world run what they call a seven-day co-sync program, which includes an intravaginal device that releases progesterone. These go by the name of CIDR or PRID and each have a different gun to gently and cleanly place them in the vagina of the female you are synchronizing.

The prostaglandins the veterinary community uses in these programs to bring the cattle into heat have not changed in decades, but there have been some changes to the GNRH products you use in the synchronization.

Most of the products, like Fertiline or Fertagyl, are the same. One with a different molecular formula has been out for a year, called Gonavet.

Whoever is helping set up your synchronization program, be it your veterinarian, embryo transplant veterinarian, AI specialist or even nutritionist, will have their preferences. The main drugs to set up the programs need to come from your veterinarian. All large-animal cow-calf veterinarians will have a specific protocol they follow, as timing with everything is critical.

It is extremely important that nutrition, including minerals and vitamins as well as energy and protein, are looked after in the diet. Lice and internal worms need to be at a minimum and of course cows should be vaccinated for the main reproductive diseases, IBR and BVD, and others if prevalent in your area.

Cows and heifer calves need to be in good body condition because if they aren’t cycling naturally, a synchronization program will not help them. Just like with natural breeding, all these nutritional and health factors must be looked after to get maximal conception rate.

You or your AI person need to be very up to date on the best way to thaw semen, get the gun ready, load the straw and get the cow/heifer clean in order for the dose to enter the vagina and thread the cervix.

A good handling system is imperative, because with the synchronized cattle, the third time through the chute is the one in which they are inseminated.

At breeding time, the team must be co-ordinated; I never set up more cows than the technician or technicians can process in two hours. That way there is no worry about getting your timing out — and it is critical, as the name “timed AI” would suggest.

Conception rates can be right up there with those from natural breeding, with better setups and AI education.

Remember, too, that when synchronize-breeding a large group, those that don’t conceive will be somewhat synchronized in their heats the next time around, so will still need a fair amount of bull power unless they are being bred with AI a second time.

It is great to see the enthusiasm with the next generation of cattle producers taking up AI.

Labour can be a bit higher with AI, but genetic gain could be higher and the individual mating plan can have advantages.

There can be cost savings on bulls and with the ability to freeze semen, the genetics of a bull can be retained and used long after that bull is gone.

Most producers put lots of effort and thought into the next breeding season. AI has really been rejuvenated and with all the new technologies of sexed semen and synchronized breeding, lots of options are available.

Whether using better-quality bulls or AI, the genetic gain in increased performance, health, feed efficiency and reproduction can yield better returns.

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The remaining cow herd is now in its earliest weeks of gestation and requires a modest level of nutrition. It is an opportunity to feed some of the most cost-effective forage diets. But as time goes on, beef cows’ nutrient requirements steadily increase, and new enhanced diets are required.

Unfortunately, some producers do not follow suit, which often leads into a poor calving season. To avoid such catastrophe, a nutritious early-gestation diet should be established for the cow herd that can be built up as winter and their greater nutrient demands descend upon them.

Even before we get started on setting up any gestating cow feeding programs, most producers should walk through their herds, whether on pasture or at home, and think about which cows should be culled. There might be many reasons that beef cows are to be culled; the top qualification on most peoples’ list should be open cows.

I recently spoke to a lifetime producer and friend, who operates a 400-Angus/Simmental cow herd. He allows no exceptions to this rule. He figures that if an open cow (that is, not pregnant) is not sold, not one dime will be generated until the fall of 2025, even if she gets rebred by next spring. And she is already an $800 liability when she is overwintered. Besides, with the strong cull prices at the saleyard, it only makes common sense to put $2,500 per cow in your pocket.

Once these open cows and other stragglers are gone, it’s time for producers take a second walk and assess the general body condition of each gestating cow. That’s because a properly fed cow during autumn and going into winter with an optimum body condition score of five to six — on a scale of one (emaciated) to nine (obese) — has a great chance of maintaining a trouble-free pregnancy and good calving season. This compares to a thinner cow with a BCS of less than four, which is most likely to have difficulty surviving winter and often ending up in a difficult calving situation.

Early- to mid-gestation mature cows make the best overwintering candidates to either maintain their optimum BCS of five to six or build it up. In the fall, their nutrient requirements are comparably low to other times of the year.

Therefore, to support their own vital functions and an early-term fetus, cows require 52-55 per cent TDN (dietary energy), nine to 10 per cent crude protein, 0.4 per cent calcium, 0.25 per cent phosphorus, 0.2 per cent magnesium and salt, essential trace minerals and vitamins.

With the advent of bountiful cereal straw across the Prairies this autumn, I have already built a couple of dozen diets to meet these initial nutrient requirements from late October to the middle of December. Plus, I am prepared to increase their plane of nutrition as we progress into the colder weather of winter. In the table here you’ll see six well-balanced early gestation diets for 1,200- to 1,400-lb. pregnant beef cows.

One assumed consideration in all these just-under-$2 diets is to include an accompanying mineral-vitamin program. In this way, I often recommend to producers that they feed their cows a well-balanced yet less costly standard cow mineral for the first 90 days of early to mid-gestation and then switch their herd over to a breeder mineral formulated with organic trace minerals and higher vitamin levels for the remaining 60 days before calving.

It is common that many people forgo this two-step mineral program and feed the latter fortified breeder mineral for the entire gestation period.

As a beef nutritionist, I am aware that these outlined early-gestation diets (with a good mineral-vitamin feeding program) have a limited overwinter purpose. By mid-December, they should be re-evaluated and necessary changes should be made to enhance the level of their nutrition.

Such changes may include replacing a significant amount of straw with more nutritious grass hay and corn silage, or it may simply mean adding a couple extra pounds of barley. Either way, the essential nutrient requirements in most cowherds are achieved until the calving season.

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That’s a good thing because last year, many cow-calf operators bred more replacement heifers that are now calving or about to calve.

Some of these producers told me they throw them into their main cowherd if they are big enough, while others are going to keep them separated until the new breeding season on pasture. I would also treat them as a special group in order to get them bred with a second calf.

Most people will agree that fresh first-calf cows (no longer called heifers, but new cows) need extra time and care to return to active reproduction. After all, they usually take a few extra weeks to a month to shrink their gravid uterus back to normal.

At the same time, they are new to nursing a newborn calf, and are expected themselves to grow into maturity. It is on my own personal wish-list that all new cows should have at least one or two strong and fertile heat-cycles by the start of a 60-day breeding season.

For example, I have known a few producers over the years who failed this challenge and their operation paid dearly. That’s because many of their young cows struggled with nutritional and health-related issues during the next few months; some failed to conceive and were culled. Yet, I feel it doesn’t have to turn-out adversely, if three special guidelines are implemented in most first calf-cow groups:

Best possible BCS

Maintain an optimum body condition score (BCS) of three to 3.5 (out of five). This work starts in hindsight with a well-balanced overwintering feed and management program that supports a gain of one to 1.5 lbs. per head per day by calving. After calving, a more enriched post-calving lactation diet (62-65 per cent TDN, 12 per cent protein) supports similar growth, yet takes on the extra nutrient demands of producing 10 litres of milk per day for nursing calves.

Account for limited dry matter intake

A new 1,000-lb. beef cow has less feed capacity, so it eats less than a 1,200-lb. brood cow. However, its total energy requirements are no different. As a result, this large nutrient load must be condensed into a denser post-calving diet, if their requirements are met. Given that a post-calving first-calf cow should consume about 2.5 per cent of her bodyweight in dry feed, a typical animal weighing 1,000-1,100 lbs. should consume 25 lbs. of feed on a dry matter basis per day.

Emphasize a well-balanced mineral/vitamin program

After calving until breeding, a well-formulated mineral should be fed at three to four ounces per day. This amount helps build up mineral/vitamin status that promotes active rebreeding and conception. It should be fed in loose form or mixed into the daily diet. My timeless favourite is an 18 per cent calcium, nine per cent phosphorus (three per cent magnesium) mineral (with fortified copper, zinc and selenium, plus extra vitamin A and E), which complements many types of replacement-cow diets made up mostly of drylot forages.

Consequently, here are some pre-pasture examples of post-calving lactation diets for 1,000-lb. first-calf-cows in a three to 3.5 BCS that implement my above three points:

Example 1

• Free-choice alfalfa-grass hay
• 1.0-1.5 kg barley or corn
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder mineral

Example 2

• 25-30 kg barley silage
• 3.0 kg grass hay
• 0.5 kg canola meal
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder mineral

Example 3

• 25-30 kg barley silage
• 1.5 kg straw
• 1.0 kg protein distillers’ grains
• 3-4 oz. of 2:1 breeder cattle mineral

The nice thing about these diets is that they are built upon feedstuffs that are readily available to most western provinces. However, there are years of drought and feed shortages, where overwintered first-calf cows become run down by calving time and people are often forced to feed them to increase BCS, afterward.

Fortunately, university field trials demonstrate that high-energy diets (usually meaning more grain is available) should be fed during a few weeks before and a few weeks after the start of breeding season. This allows some thin replacements to “catch up” to the rest of the cowherd by laying down enough body fat to achieve strong heats to be rebred.

It’s a last-resort practice that doesn’t always work. Therefore, I maintain that newly fresh cows are to be separated as a special group — first properly overwintered, calved out and then continuously fed/managed from calving to the breeding season.

Here, they might join the main cowherd on breeding pastures — or they might be bred on special pastures of their own for better chance of successful conception and finally dovetailed into maturity.

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Even good teenagers can be expensive. In our beef cattle production systems, the teenage role is filled by replacement heifers, and like teenagers a bit of understanding about the changes they are going through over those years can help improve the outcomes when we deal with them.

Whether we appreciate it or not, cow depreciation is a massive expense in most cow-calf operations. In many cases, it ranks as one of the top three expenses. Depreciation does not occur in a linear fashion with replacement heifers. Because there is a big upfront cost in either purchase or development, there can be a subsequent large depreciation cost for heifers that leave the herd early in life.

Understanding the basic physiology occurring over the roughly three-year time frame from heifer calf to second-calver can help us to manage this process, our expectations and the resulting cost to our operation. The first thing young heifers are going through is as basic as growth and puberty.

Estrus occurs based on a combination of age and weight/body condition. This means older heifers (those born in the first cycle) have a bit more time to reach the milestones required for ovulation and getting bred in the replacement program. If we expect our replacement heifers to calve at two years of age, they must be bred at 15 months of age.

If we look at a group of heifers born over the span of a 90-day calving season, when the oldest heifers are 15 months old, the youngest are 13 months and may not have even reached a physiological stage where estrus is possible. If we breed early to calve heifers ahead of the main cow herd, this may be exaggerated further. Heifers are less likely to be bred on their first ovulation than on subsequent ovulations, as the hormonal process of ovulation helps with reproductive organ development. For the best success, breeding heifers should be on their second or further ovulation by the time breeding season rolls around.

Traditional knowledge dictates that heifers should be roughly two-thirds of their mature size at first breeding. A lot of research indicates this is not necessarily true and that healthy heifers at 50 to 55 per cent of mature weight at breeding will perform as well and last as long in the cowherd as heifers exposed at a heavier weight range.

To put this in perspective, the two-thirds rule means that you expect an 850-pound breeding heifer to mature into a 1,300-pound cow. Managing to a lower ratio may allow us to reduce development costs and results in smaller mature size. Breeding success is higher when heifers are on a rising plane of nutrition through the breeding season.

If a heifer is not bred and but is still gaining weight over the summer, they are adding value and not taking a depreciation hit (market dependent). From a physiological perspective, a first- or second-trimester bred heifer does not take a lot of extra energy and basically just needs to keep growing and maturing. At this stage, the fetus is quite small and does not demand a lot of excess energy.

Most critical time

In the third trimester the heifer starts to have additional requirements as the fetus develops, her mammary system is starting to come to life and she continues to grow. This leads to the start of what’s likely the most critical time physiologically in her entire life — and is directly connected to the largest potential depreciation hit in a cow’s lifetime.

Firstly, the heifer must calve, and recover from that calving event. This includes basic repair of the reproductive tract. Even a normal unassisted birth will result in some trauma to that tract. However, a difficult birth may result in further damage that requires significantly more biological resources and time for the heifer to repair. Difficult births are one of the leading causes for heifers to fail at rebreeding. Additional physiological changes include milk production and raising a calf. More on that in a bit.

That first-calf heifer is also not yet at full mature size and still has some further growth of her own before she gets to that final mature size. Another interesting part of her development also occurs around the age of two. At roughly this stage of life, she replaces her incisors with a set of permanent incisors.

If our heifer calves at 24 months of age and we want her to calve again at three years old, she needs to rebreed at 27 months of age, or roughly 90 days post-partum. To obtain good conception rates, heifers should be happy, healthy and on a rising plane of nutrition. Physiologically, her body needs to tell her life is good, her nutritional needs are supported, her calf is supported and there are enough extra resources to support a pregnancy. This three-month time frame for rebreeding also roughly coincides with peak lactation, which can easily see a 20 to 30 per cent increase in nutrition requirements.

In a nutshell, physiologically we are asking that the first-calf heifer recover from calving, continue to grow, learn to be a mother, develop/maintain peak lactation, and rebreed while she may be between sets of teeth.

In a physiological context, it is readily apparent that it is much more difficult to get a first-calf heifer rebred than it is to breed a virgin heifer. It is also where we see the highest depreciation rates, as an open three-year-old generally has a massive value difference when compared to a bred three-year-old or a bred heifer. We also have not had enough calves from that female to cover the development costs or purchase price.

No matter how you slice it, teenagers can be challenging. Understanding this can help us in our operation to decide what extra support to provide to these cattle (or whether to provide extra support) or if we should own these young cattle in the first place or examine alternative replacement strategies.

If your ranch pregnancy checks or markets open cows, it may be worth tracking the percentage of first calf heifers that wind up on the truck heading into their third year. It may help you adjust management to reduce the depreciation costs associated with cows that take an early exit from the herd. Because the depreciation cost is so high, there may be cheaper alternatives providing further support to that specific set of animals as they grow through those teenage years.

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Those beef cows in optimum body condition should be put on a nutritious feeding program that maintains them until they calve in two to three months, while fleshy pre-calving cows should be put on similar diets which do not allow body weight loss. All it takes from beef producers, in both cases, is a little common sense.

Such common sense starts with assessing one’s cowherd body condition score (BCS). As a beef nutritionist, I like to use the wider U.S. scale of 1 to 9, which tells us the nutritional status of each cow just by looking at how much body fat is carried. Associated research predicts that overwintered mature cows and replacement heifers that calve at a target BCS of five to six (scale of 1 = emaciation to 9 = very obese) are destined to have a successful calving season compared to freshened skinny cows (BCS below 5). Later on, they return to estrus to get successfully rebred in order to maintain a full-year calving interval.

The funny thing is that this November, I have been hard-pressed to find snow or many skinny cows on the Prairies. For example, I walked among a herd of 200 red Angus-cross beef cows on dried-out pasture just before their calves were shipped. I believe the average BCS score of this herd was around 6.5 — no skinny cows, a few cows in the 5-6 range (moderate to good) and a higher proportion of 7-8 (fleshy to obese).

It seems odd that limited research shows freshened beef cows — ones that carry lots of flesh and are not too fat — have a quicker return to estrus than optimum-BCS penmates. Unfortunately, their conception rates fall off dramatically during the breeding season. Plus, if a cow becomes obese, she tends to lay down internal fat, which often leads to calving problems once her calf is born.

These things are good to know, because they give me a clearer picture to design current late-gestation feeding programs that should be fed particularly to herds that calve this February-March. Then, they can be modified to be fed to nursing beef cows until the subsequent breeding season. In doing so, I follow three mainstream dietary guidelines:

• Meet National Research Council (NRC) requirements for late-trimester gestating cows: 55-58 per cent TDN, nine to 11 per cent protein, 0.25 per cent calcium and 0.20 per cent phosphorus, complemented with salt, trace mineral and vitamins. Dry matter intake estimates are about 35-40 lbs.
• Modify diets to cowherd BCS: cows in a BCS of 5-6 should gain about 100 lbs. of body weight to recover their fetal and placental weight after calving. Fleshier cows (BCS of 7-8) should be fed to maintain their body weight, not to lose body condition.
• Adjust for cold winter weather: energy density of any late-gestation diet should be increased in these diets as the weather gets colder, based on a rule of thumb that for every 1 C drop in temperature below 0 C, the beef cows’ TDN (total digestible nutrients) energy maintenance requirements are increased by about two per cent.

As a testimonial to these parameters, a friend of mine operates a 400-cow-calf farm, which went through a very dry summer. Along with other forage, he salvaged his scant canola crop by turning it into good overwinter beef feed. Its analysis showed TDN of 54-60 per cent and protein of 11-12 per cent, which partially meets late-gestation cow nutrient requirements. As a bonus, the canola crop’s notorious sulphur levels are very low. High sulphur levels can cause polio in cattle.

The details of late-gestation diets are listed in the table shown above.

My friend’s cowherd is in optimum body condition going into the winter. That’s because his harvested hay fields had a lot of green regrowth in which most of his cows grazed, right up to weaning of their calves. Now that he moved them onto snowy home pastures, one or two of these TMRs are going to be fed for the next few months until calving. Producers in a similar situation — having a cow herd of good body condition — might consider their own beef cow diets along similar nutritional lines.

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