How to Maintain a Herd of Beef Cattle
Introduction
Two Agfacts have been produced to cover the topic of 'records for beef producers':
- Agfact A2.8.one Record keeping and management planning
- Agfact A2.8.two Tape keeping for herd improvement
The recording systems outlined present a package of practical records for beef producers. You lot can change them to adapt your particular needs. The number of records maintained and the detail recorded will vary according to individual needs and how the information is to exist used. Each record should have a specific objective and be used for that purpose.
While many beef producers achieve genetic comeback in their herds without keeping individual moo-cow records, a sound management plan and conscientious subjective selection assessment are required. Individual cow records allow for objective assessment of heritable and repeatable traits. They enable you to accurately measure genetic comeback and monitor individual cow fertility and production.
The tape formats shown in this Agfact cover private convenance cow records that tin exist applied to breeding herds. The accent is on recording product information that is useful in selection decisions for herd improvement and herd fertility monitoring.
What to tape
What you lot tape will depend on your needs and your adequacy to record information. The records you choose to keep should exist related to the purpose yous are going to use them for, such as selecting heifers, culling cows or forming a nucleus herd for breeding bulls.
Producers interested in performance recording and registering animals with BREEDPLAN will require more detailed record keeping. Data recorded should mostly be on:
- heritable traits, i.e. birthweight, calving difficulty, cancer eye
- repeatable traits, i.due east. fertility, calving date
Checklist of records to keep
Cow informationFull general records of:
| Cow performanceAnnual records of:
|
Identification
If y'all are going to record information nigh individual animals, yous demand to be able to identify each animal in the herd over a number of years. The easiest mode to achieve this at nowadays is to apply National Livestock Identification Organisation (NLIS) electronic devices (ear tags / rumen bolus), or plastic ear tags.
The Australian beef industry has adopted a whole-of-life identification system (NLIS). The electronic ID devices used in this system are easily linked to reckoner-based tape-keeping systems commonly available. For further data, encounter National Livestock Identification System.
Ear tag identification systems
Plastic ear tags and NLIS ear tags are not loss-proof! Where permanent identification is necessary, a dorsum-upwardly management tag or ear tattoo is desirable.
Adopting any ear tag or NLIS identification program is pointless if you do non plan to 'mother up' cows with their annual dogie driblet, or record private fauna information.
Cows
Ear tags and NLIS tags/boluses are used to give an individual number, to bespeak age and, if required, to show the convenance of the cow or cow group. For example, '810' may correspond cow number 10, built-in in 1998 — the outset number shows the year of birth and the following numbers identify the individual moo-cow.
Different-coloured tags or the improver of letters to a higher place the identification number tin can be used to record the sire. Cows that fail to rear a dogie can have their ear tag notched to place them for culling and disposal.
Calves
A useful alternative to the common plastic ear tag is the pink ear tag system — note that the pink ear tag system will exist reviewed in 2006, in conjunction with the rollout of NLIS. Calves can be tagged with pink ear tags (the pink colour denoting HGP-free condition), individually numbered in addition to displaying the tail tag number. This means y'all can use the ear tag instead of the tail tag, and have the benefit of using it every bit a direction tag every bit well.
Calves treated with HGPs can exist tagged with orange not-NLIS ear tags — these calves must have their 'off' ear (the right ear) punched with a triangular punch.
Two systems exist for tagging calves: tagging at nascency or tagging at mark.
Tagging at nativity can exist done in 2 ways:
- Allocating permanent numbers
- Heifer calves are allocated a permanent number, e.yard. for 2004 calving, numbers would start at 401 or 4001, for the first calf born
- Numbers are allocated in club of age. It is then piece of cake to draft into age groups for 'performance testing without scales'
- Male calves can exist included in the number sequence or tin can be given a unlike fix of numbers starting at 1. Linking the performance of those calves later in life to their dam is of import for genetic progress
- Numbering all calves with mother's number
- This simplifies mothering-upwardly
- Replacement heifers are given a permanent number at their showtime joining
Tagging at marking:
- Calves are numbered, from one upwards, as they run through the calf race
- Odd-numbered tags tin exist used for steers and even-numbered tags can exist used for heifers, or different tag colours can be used
- Past ascertainment, cows and calves are 'mothered upwards' during the menstruum between marking and weaning
- When the heifers are to exist joined, they can be tagged with a permanent number in line with the cow sequence
- Heifers can be permanently tagged, using the cow sequence format, at marking. For example, at the marking of the 2004 calf drop, the start heifer calf through the race would be tagged number 401
The NLIS tags can be applied at nascency or at marketing — this is just done when y'all wish to record private animal information.
Points to note well-nigh your identification system
- Sufficient room should be allowed on your tags for the individual cow number to appear after the twelvemonth number. Herd size will make up one's mind how much room will be needed
- Your ear tag identification numbers should be the aforementioned every bit those shown in your function records.
- Correct tag placement will minimise tag losses and provide practiced legibility
Role records
Having taken the effort to implement an identification system, the next pace is to determine upon a arrangement of office records to shop the information y'all wish to go on.
A range of options exist for keeping permanent herd records in the farm role. Traditionally the almost versatile of all these options was the use of cow record cards, one carte du jour for each moo-cow. However, with the developments in technology, both elementary and advanced computer software programs for herd recording are now available. Laptop computers can likewise be used in the yards to avert duplication of information.
The National Livestock Identification Organization provides the direct link to computerised office records.
Cow record cards
Individual breeding cow records need to be kept in a unproblematic, easy-to-use format. Cow tape cards have the following advantages:
- The total productive history of the cow can be seen at a glance
- The cards can be filed in various ways, for instance in paddock groups or in number lodge within age groups
- As cows are culled and sold, the cards are removed from the organisation merely are retained in gild to trace family histories
- A calving notebook is used to record calving details in the paddock for transfer immediately to cow record cards
- Information technology is easy to draft out, in the role, the top and lesser cows, older cows, and heifer replacements
An example of a cow record card is given to the correct. A record card size 12.v cm × twenty cm is recommended. On the back of the carte du jour, vaccination and health details can exist recorded.
An alternative to using cards is to use pages in a loose-leafage folder, with 1 page per cow. This gives the flexibility to move record pages into groups, merely this method is more cumbersome than a bill of fare system.
Computer programs are speedily becoming the most preferred and reliable source of herd recording.
Bull cards
Herd bulls can also be recorded on a computer or menu system. The card entries can show historic period, breeding description, vendor, purchase price, annual joining records, health treatments, frame size, testicular size, and details on breeding soundness and identification.
Cattle notebook
By adopting a carte system in the office, all you need in the paddock and the yards is a notebook with headings drawn up for the information you lot want to continue. Transfer the details equally soon as possible, straight onto the cow record cards or computer, taking care to avoid whatever duplication.
Notebooks used in the paddock and yards can be lost, damaged or fouled up easily. Utilise a biro, rather than a pencil, to record notebook entries. Pencil entries can become obscure if the notebook gets dirty or wet.
If you practice non wish to adopt a moo-cow menu system, two other useful records you can keep are a mating group record and a calving book.
Mating group record
This is a group tape and non an individual record, although it does let you to tape details on private cows within the group (see the case below). The main advantage of a mating group record is to check on group fertility (both balderdash and cows).
If y'all utilize moo-cow record cards, then keep mating grouping records in the notebook. This avoids duplication.
The mating group is a useful herd management tape to place balderdash fertility problems in both unmarried-sire and multiple-sire joining. It also helps with examining calving spread. Non all the cows joined in each mating group will calve with other cows from that joining group.
Calving book
The calving book (encounter excerpt beneath) allows you to record calving details as cows calve in their calving groups. Information technology is a paddock notebook and the cardinal record required for a software or cow card system.
The layout illustrated is taken from the calving volume produced by BREEDPLAN. The format shown is recommended because:
- information technology allows you to record information that is direct transferable to BREEDPLAN;
- it tin be kept equally a record in its own right;
- records can be transferred onto the computer or the cow tape cards.
If the calving book is the merely tape kept, then you lot volition have all the calves born listed together, along with a tape of the cows that calved.
Cows that failed to calve need to exist recorded likewise.
If you are interested in BREEDPLAN, contact your local Beefiness Cattle Advisory Officer or the Agricultural Business concern Research Institute, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351. See also BREEDPLAN.
Using the calving book
- Before calving commences, the cow identification numbers for each calving group should be written down in order.
- Daily entries made in the paddock notebook should be transferred to the primary sheet or calculator that dark.
- A checklist can exist made past listing all dogie tag numbers in social club, aslope dam numbers. This is done at the back of the calving book when the calves are tagged, eastward.g. at birth or when moo-cow/calf pairs are mothered-up.
Call up …
Individual breeding-cow records volition allow you to utilise operation data for selection. Oft, records will take to exist adapted to brand meaningful comparisons between individuals. Recall that comparisons tin can be made only between animals run together and treated alike.
Records must exist relevant to your purpose and must be recorded with ease. Ease of recording is dictated past:
- the extensiveness of the belongings, the stocking rate, and mustering problems;
- the herd size in relation to labour available at disquisitional times;
- the availability of convenient treatment and measuring facilities.
Beef Cattle Informational Officers are available to help beefiness producers to develop recording programs for their private herds.
Further information
See also Agfact A2.8.ane Record keeping and management planning.
Acknowledgment
This Agfact is based on an earlier print edition of Agfact A2.eight.2 Records for herd comeback, written by Ian Blackwood, District Livestock Officeholder (Beef Cattle and Horses), NSW Agriculture.
Source: https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/animals-and-livestock/beef-cattle/management/business-management/record-keeping-herd
0 Response to "How to Maintain a Herd of Beef Cattle"
Post a Comment