How to lift beef cow pregnancy rates

Tuesday 30th January 2018

How to lift beef cow pregnancy rates

The Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics Beef Progeny Test data clearly shows that, the better condition your cows are in at mating, the more calves they will produce.

The test is run across five large-scale commercial properties throughout New Zealand.

The dollars and cents

Based on a 100-cow beef herd, it costs $1650 to increase the average BCS by 1 point in the lead up to mating.

The maths:

1 BCS point = 30kg of weight gain, which requires 165kg of feed at 10MJ

At 10c/kgDM, that’s $1650

Based on the graph above – and to keep the maths simple – if you lift the score from 4 up to 5, your 100 cows will potentially generate another 15 calves – worth $12,800 at weaning.

The maths:

Value of weaner = $800

15 calves x $800 = $12,000

Your $1650 spend just returned you $12,000.

If you lift the score from 5 up to 6, that’s potentially another 7 calves – still a healthy $5600 return on your $1650 spend.

Allowing for losses between scanning and weaning, you are still looking at returns on your capital (i.e. the additional feed) of up to 600%.

Find out more

B+LNZ Beef Cow Body Condition Scoring Booklet



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