r/Ranching • u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle • 1d ago

Preg Tested Replacements

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We preg tested our replacement heifers last week. Had 22% open (11/50) on a 30 day breeding season. One 2-year old bull and two yearlings. Been bouncing between 15% and 20% the last few years. Would like to be at 10%, but that’s tough to get in 30 days.

Full salt and mineral, good water, and a flax seed lick tub.

But they’re in great shape and the opens should bring a premium at the sale barn!

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u/Cow-puncher77 1d ago

Darn… that seems high, to me. But I leave my bulls out longer. Have you ever pulled blood and compared between bred and opens? I know we started adding g a higher copper and manganese ration, and it helped.

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 1d ago

We haven’t pulled any blood, but that’s an interesting idea.

Our theory is that we want fertile cattle that are quick to sexual maturity. The 30 days breeding season seems to keep our frame size about right and has the downstream effect of keeping our calving season tight for subsequent years.

The biggest benefit is that our mature cows usually run between 2% and 5% open on 45 days. And our average cow age is up around 7 or 8. Get rid of the riff-raff early and only retain the fertile, easy-keepers.

As an aside, our vet says to normally expect 30-35% open replacement heifers with a 30 day breeding season.

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u/imabigdave Cattle 1d ago

Yup, if the heifers are at breeding weight, it's the best time to cull them for fertility. They have zero excuses to not breed. We had 25% opens this year out of the replacements.

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 1d ago

I’m with you. Get rid of them early when they’re still worth some good dollars.

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u/Cow-puncher77 1d ago

Oh, yea, I get it… we operate a little differently, but we want good genetics, too. I was just making a suggestion, something that helped us. We pulled blood on random cows a few years, when we first started some new properties we’d purchased. Between what was in the water and grazing absorption, we were consistently seeing deficiencies in places. We worked with a supplement company to develop a supplement that helps the cows with what they’re short on. 

I’ve seen video of your cows, they’re a good looking, uniformed bunch, from what I’ve seen. 

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 1d ago

Sorry if I came across as defensive or grouchy - not my intent!

Your comment gave me a chance to explain what we try to do with our program and I didn’t want to waste the opportunity. We’ve discussed doing liver biopsies with our vet to see if our mineral is working as intended. But we always forget until we’re done preg testing. Too many hats to wear and jobs to juggle.

Sorry again! I try to be open to suggestions and really do appreciate it! Thank you!

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u/Cow-puncher77 1d ago

Ah, didn’t take it as such. But not having enough of me to do the work? THAT I understand. Been behind since ‘18. I’d do a lot differently if I didn’t care to sleep a few hours every day, the heat wasn’t too hard on the cows/equipment, and I had an unlimited budget… most of us in this industry could say that, I think.

And maybe I write too much… don’t get a lot of people to talk to out here…

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 1d ago

Haha, I get the not talking to people. I’m 12 miles from town and get there once a month or so. Writing is much easier to do on your own time and keeps you from losing your marbles.

You better keep at the writing so we can all keep learning!

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 1d ago

I forgot to ask earlier, but what’s your breeding season length and average open rate on replacement heifers?

I’m kicking around breeding for 60 days and then selling the lates. We’re trying it this year with our mature cows and will see how we did when we test them in late September.

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u/Cow-puncher77 1d ago

Replacement heifers? Typically 90 days, and most years it’s 98-100%. I’ll occasionally get one or two every 2-3 years that don’t breed out of 40-80 head we keep. My numbers are all screwed the last few years from drought, though. I didn’t keep any heifers 16-17, 20 in ‘18, none in ‘19-20. Sold 180 head of mommas in ‘20 just so I’d have the grazing for the rest, and we were already at near 60% capacity before selling . Kept a few (9,7, and 12) ‘21-23, then 25 in ‘24 and 59 last year. Going to have to cull a lot of herd cows this year, mostly due to age. One pasture will lose 39; the whole group. I usually have a few years scattered between them, but the drought has thrown us off. Add my mother passing, my foreman getting injured, and water well issues in that timeline, and it’s mass chaos.

As for herd cows, we stay at 99%, but…. We leave bulls out year round on the bigger herds of 120-180 head. We’ve had a lot of problems losing bulls to fighting. Broken penises, broken legs, torn up fences, and wandering weaklings. We found leaving bulls out reduced the infighting that happened when they were reintroduced to pasture. They establish a territory/hierarchy and make it work. Sure, they still fight, but nothing like they did years before. That does make breeding interesting… been experimenting with dna testing, but it’s damn hard with myself doing all the work. That’s a work in progress… 

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 23h ago

Wow… that’s almost a different world entirely. We’re fortunate in that we are able to keep heifers every year and usually sell broken mouth pairs if we’re short on grass. But we generally have to have 1-2 years of no moisture before we have to destock.

And that’s definitely a shit-load of work for one person. Feel free to shoot me any questions about the DNA testing (or make a post) - we’ve been doing it consistently for about a decade now.

With the longer calving season, what do you do to mitigate the differences in calf size/age during sale time?

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u/Cow-puncher77 12h ago

I’m not totally alone… I’ve got two old men helping… ones 80, the other almost 80. But most the time, it’s more a babysitting job, I swear… then I have a teenage daughter trying to help.

It’s been a rainfall roller coaster the last 20 ye ars. Everything’s paid for now, so I’ve taken my time rebuilding, letting a lot of pastures recover where we lost a lot of native grass. Sitting at 45% capacity at the moment, which gives us a lot of room to make decisions. 

I’ve researched the dna tracking… the initial program launch, then subsequent labor to expand it and keep updated is my issue. Kids are getting into it, I keep hoping one of them will take off with it. 

In our market, as long as the calves are over 350lbs and in a large enough volume to form a uniform lot, we’re not losing a lot. It was 14% last I checked. They bring a percentage less in total, more per pound, but they come off the cow and pasture, so you get longer rest for the mother, less forage eaten. In the fall, if I have the wheat and moisture, I’ll keep the lights and put out on wheat grazing a few months. That’s a give and take. If it gets dry and I’m forced to sell while the market is down, I can get a loss over where they were at weaning, after you figure your care costs. If I can time it right, it makes good money. Contracting helps, but that’s not easy either. What hurt me most are the late calves born on a hot year. They just don’t grow well when it’s 109* and the grass is all burned up. One good thing I have with it is I can spread out my works over an extended period of time, if I need. With the market going up and down, if you can time it right, again, it can benefit you to be spread out. A wet spring almost always drives the price up, so it’s good to have those winter hold overs to feed the market. That’s actually been when I can most easily draw a good contract.

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle 8h ago

Management, management, management.

At least it’s all paid for - that’s a huge boon!

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u/Cow-puncher77 8h ago

Absolutely. A true blessing, especially in today’s market….. But I do get frustrated when I look up and I’ve been on the phone at my desk for 6 hours, and still haven’t paid the bills… I didn’t want a desk job!! Not big enough to hire an office assistant, yet…. 😭

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u/LoveCows_1863 1m ago

Have you thought about selling the open heifers private treaty for beef? We sell a few steers a year as grass fed beef and have also sold open heifers that way. It's mostly coming 2 year olds, but we have done coming year olds as well and the meat is still tender and actually better marbled for the coming 3 year olds. Someone who got half a 3 YO heifer recently said it's the best beef he's ever had. It was a Red Angus heifer actually. Don't remember if she was supposed to be good for carcass or not, but she was pretty fat even though she was on dry annual feed.