Pounds of DM/ac by Month

-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

Jan

Feb Mar

Apr

May Ju

n

Jul

Aug

Sep Oct

Nov

Dec

%CP by Month

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

Jan

Feb Mar

Apr

May Ju

n

Jul

Aug

Sep Oct

Nov

Dec

%TDN by Month

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

Jan

Feb Mar

Apr

May Ju

n

Jul

Aug

Sep Oct

Nov

Dec

Bermuda/Fescue Sod-seeded

Continuous Calving: Are Economic Incentives

Large Enough to Eliminate the Traditional Practice?

by D. Doye and M. Popp

INTRODUCTION

Why, despite expert recommendations to control breeding seasons in cow/calf operations, do roughly half of small-scale producers leave herd sires with cows year-round?

cash flow – can sell a calf when cash flow is required

income averaging – guaranteed not to sell entire calf crop at potentially lowest seasonal price

ease – do not have to maintain separate facilities for herd sires

forages – cows naturally select calving interval depending on forage availability

flexibility – do not have to wait for next breeding season for open cows

Controlled breeding season on the other hand offers:

nutrition – ability to match feed to nutrition requirements by stage of lactation

culling – improved monitoring of reproductive performance enhances herd genetics over time

prices – sale of uniform, larger batch of calves leads to premiums

Decision to convert to controlled breeding season takes 4 – 5 years

Figure 2. Crude Protein (CP) and Total Digestible Nutrient (TDN) Requirements per Cow based on Seasonal Calving Distribution as Affected by Calving Season Management.

PROCEDURES

LP in Excel with added Frontline Premium Plus Solver due to size of tableau

Linked spreadsheets allow for user interface to conduct sensitivity analyses on key production statistics

RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS

Initial solution for base case scenario resulted in selection of continuous calving (Table 2) assuming:

• 85% calving rate for either calving season

• no price premiums for controlled calving

• same total labor requirements per cow regardless of calving season

Switched from continuous to controlled calving with only a $1/cwt calf price premium for larger, more uniform lots with controlled calving (Table 2)

Switched from continuous to controlled calving with only a 1% decline in calving rate for continuous (results not shown)

With expected calf price premiums of $3/cwt, controlled calving remains the optimal choice over a range of conditions

Sod-seeding pasture had a large positive impact on returns (Table 3)

More even seasonal labor distribution (Table 1), failure to calculate calving rate, lack of awareness of potential calf price premiums, and small differences in farm income relative to off-farm income may be why more producers do not control calving

Table 1. Base Case Scenario Summary Statistics for Key Variables by Month and Calving Season Management.

Table 2. Profit Maximizing Solutions to Model Runs on 40 Acres

Bermuda/Fescue and 20 Acres of Sod-seeded Pasture with Equal

Total Labor Requirements and Calving Rate but Different Calving

Season Management and Calf Price Premiums.

Table 3. Profit Maximizing Solutions for Alternative Acreages with

85% Calving Rate, 25% Higher Labor Requirement than Base

Case Scenario and $3/cwt Premium for Calves with Controlled

Calving Season.

Figure 1. Forage Dry Matter (DM) Production, Crude Protein (CP) And Total Digestible Nutrient (TDN) Characteristics for The Two Types Of Pastures Modeled. January CP and TDN Numbers Are A Function Of Stockpiling.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year

Base Scenario with Continuous Calving

Labor (hrs) 32 44 52 25 32 16 21 14 35 25 25 24 345

Capital Required ($) 4,299 4,796 4,945 6,913 7,080 8,523 3,086 3,682 4,027 7,052 3,251 3,534 61,187

Min. DM Required (lbs) 25,183 22,672 25,074 24,263 25,060 24,252 25,108 25,124 24,305 25,090 24,349 25,220 295,701

Grazing Consumption

Bermuda/fescue (lbs) 0 1,960 5,600 15,400 1,869 24,252 25,108 0 17,305 9,800 8,400 0 109,694

Sod-seeded (lbs) 0 4,200 13,300 8,863 23,192 0 0 25,124 7,000 4,200 7,000 3,500 96,374

Mixed hay (lbs bought) 25,183 16,512 6,174 0 0 0 0 0 0 11,090 8,949 21,720 89,628

Base Scenario with Controlled Breeding Season

Labor (hrs) 25 87 77 25 27 11 18 11 26 13 12 15 346

Capital Required ($) 4,249 4,707 5,014 6,951 7,086 8,497 3,029 3,594 3,907 6,900 3,251 3,503 60,688

Min. DM Required (lbs) 25,310 22,672 25,101 24,291 25,101 24,291 25,101 25,101 24,291 25,101 24,372 25,645 296,378

Grazing Consumption

Bermuda/fescue (lbs) 0 1,960 5,600 11,052 25,101 0 25,101 5,241 17,291 9,800 8,400 0 109,546

Sod-seeded (lbs) 0 4,200 13,300 13,239 0 24,291 0 19,860 7,000 4,200 7,000 3,500 96,590

Mixed hay (lbs bought) 25,310 16,512 6,201 0 0 0 0 0 0 11,101 8,972 22,145 90,241

Continuous Controlled

$1/cwt Premium for

Controlled

Net Returns Before Taxes to Land, Overhead, Own Labor, and Own Capital $6,336 $6,118 $6,355

Annual Labor Requirements (hours)

Owner 345 346 346

Hired - - -

Hay Feeding Requirements (lbs of DM)

Mixed Hay (11% CP, 52% TDN, 13% DM) 89,628 90,241 90,241

Months fed Oct-Mar Oct-Mar Oct-Mar

# of Cows Controlled Calving - 49 49

# of Cows Continuous Calving 49 - -

Sales $19,963 $19,769 $20,007

Expenses $13,627 $13,651 $13,651

Annual Interest Expense $405 $408 $405

Maximum Monthly Capital Borrowed

$8,523 $8,497 $8,497

OBJECTIVES

Test if financial performance differs between a spring (defined 90 day season) vs. continuous calving season

Conduct sensitivity analyses on:

• calf price premiums

• calving rate (annual number of calves sold per cow exposed) and

• operator labor limitations with changes in operation size

DATA

Base case scenario was an Arkansas 50-cow operation with these assumptions:

similar pasture management of two types of pastures (Figure 1) for both controlled and continuous calving

calving distributions and associated cow nutrition requirements (Figure 2)

two types of hay (mixed and high quality) and feed supplements could be purchased

labor and operating capital requirements adjusted by calving distribution

hired labor available if requirements exceeded 100 hours/month

35% grazing efficiency and 70% harvest efficiency for forage utilization

long-term, average, seasonally adjusted, nominal Arkansas steer and heifer prices

hauling and marketing charges on per head basis to allow proper modeling of calf price premiums

cow replacement and capital investment constant across continuous vs. controlled calving

Table 1 summarizes key statistics for the base case scenario with different calving seasons

40 acresBermuda/

Fescue and 20

acres Sod-seeded

60 acresBermuda/

Fescue

30 acresBermuda/

Fescue and 30 acres Sod-

seeded

80 acres Bermuda/ Fescue

and 40 acres Sod-

seeded

Net Returns Before Taxes to Land, Overhead, Own Labor, and Own Capital $6,769 $4,786 $7,694 $11,939

Annual Labor Requirements

Owner (hrs) 408 361 426 632

Hired (hrs) 7 - 16 199

Hay Feeding Requirements (lbs of DM)

High Quality (14% CP, 62% TDN, 11% DM) 90,241 89,025 91,495 180,482

Months fed Oct-March

Oct-March

Oct-March

Oct-March

# of Cows Controlled Calving 49 42 53 98

# of Cows Continuous Calving - - - -

Sales $20,481 $17,465 $21,990 $40,963

Expenses $13,713 $12,679 $14,295 $29,024

Annual Interest Expense $406 $380 $420 $843

Max. Monthly Capital Borrowed

$8,497 $8,097 $8,697 $17,712

Pounds of CP/Cow by Month

020406080

Jan

Feb Mar

Apr

May Ju

n

Jul

Aug

Sep Oct

Nov

Dec

Pounds of TDN/Cow by Month

170

190

210

230

Jan

Feb Mar

Apr

May Ju

n

Jul

Aug

Sep Oct

Nov

Dec

Calving Distribution by Month

0%15%30%45%60%

Jan

Feb Mar

Apr

May Ju

n

Jul

Aug

Sep Oct

Nov

Dec

Continuous Controlled