How to pick the right livestock cash cow

Being able to evaluate and judge livestock is an important selection skill extension teaches youth and adult audiences. The typical process involves a group of people leaning on the fence looking at farm animals in a pen. These could be steers, lambs, pigs, cows, goats or horses. From this group, the judges are being asked to pick the best and the worst, and to rank the animals from top to bottom and be able to explain why. Jeff Marsh will tell you that this defense of your choices is called reasons.

In the case of beef cows, the judges would be challenged to pick mama cows for their sound and correct feet and legs, their volume and depth of body, their udder quality, frame size, muscling and conformity to the perceived ideal of a beef cow in Virginia.  Before I go to far, let me correct your perception that this article is about what we teach livestock judges. In fact, it is more about what we do not teach you in judging.

What we do not teach in beef cattle judging is how to judge efficiency. You can calculate efficiency from numbers and you can recognize it if you know what to look for. Be careful about your assumptions. To evaluate beef cow efficiency you have to see the results of their production – their calf. Different cows produce different calves and we hope that they produce pounds of calf that correspond to their size. This means that big cows should produce big calves and small cows produce smaller calves. But the little cow that produces a calf almost as big as she is the holy grail of efficiency and we do not teach this in cattle judging classes.

In fact, if you put that little efficient cow in the ring with her other herd mates, she would be placed at the bottom of every class, that is until you put the calves in the pen at their side. What I learned from having seen this is you appreciate that little cow when you can see what she is capable of producing. That strapping 600 pound calf nursing a 900 pound cow is a sight to behold if you want efficiency and profit. 

This cow is literally a cash cow. Why? Because you can see she is converting considerably less feed into considerably more pounds of calf than a larger cow. As a percent of her body weight she is winning the race. She is producing more calf on less feed than any other cow in the herd. We need more like her if we can identify them. Ike Eller, retired beef specialist once remarked about the most efficient beef cows he ever saw. They were little crossbreds containing, Jersey, Hereford and Angus. The bottom line is they produced more calf as a percent of their body weight than other cows could do and they did it on less feed. 

As you select your replacements and before you cull that little cow just because of size, think about what your records say about her calves and know that not all cows are made alike and cows are not efficient just because of size.