I think cow condition is a given. I don't want my cows going less than BCS 5 at any time.  I understand that in a severe drought etc cows will pull themselves down to maintain a calf but I think it is my responsibility to see they have enough to eat so that doesn't happen below about a 5.

Sure a BCS 2 or 3 cow may have a great calf to cow wt ratio at weaning but what good is it if she dies, doesn't breed back or is very short lived?  

An important point  believe is that the calf 205 day adj ww/cow wt at weaning ratio is with no creep, we are looking to judge COW efficiency, not how much grain we can get a calf to eat prior to weaning.

Same thing if a cow is very heavy. I had that happen last fall - with the good rains and grass in WI I had a couple very large cows who maintained a BCS 6.5 or 7 up to weaning. These cows had an understandably low ww ratio.  But they were really chow hounds and ate much nore than many other cows, per pound of calf weaned. I sure don't want to adjust for their glutony.

I like to see a straight up ww ratio of over 50%. That to me is an efficient cow. A 1200 lb cow at weaning with a 650 lb 205 day calf is idea of an efficient cow.

650 to 700 lb seems like sort of the high end of th erange of how heavy a 205-adj calf can normally wean without creep regardless of cow weight.  So if I can get to a herd of 1200-1400 lb Hereford cows that can consistently wean 600-700 lb 205 day calves I will be very happy.  My highest ratio this past fall was 54% (737lb 205 day calf/ 1365lb cow at weaning).

But I had a smaller, lighter, very average looking 1st calf heifer come in at 52% (567 lb 205 day calf / 1095  lb) so this is avery efficient cow also though you wouldn't think it to look at her. Her calf at 567 at 205 days was not as spectacular as the 737 lb one but still very efficient - and profitable - for the grass, mineral, space etc used by his smaller dam. 

I can about have 3 of these (3x567=1701 lb of 205 day calf) from 3 x 1095lb = 3285 lb of cows. Compared 2 1642 lb cows (also = 3285 lb of cows) who will probably wean if I'm lucky 2 650 lb calves for a total of 1300lb of calf. It is highly unlikely a 1642 lb cow will wean a 52% = 854 lb calf!

So three smaller 1095 lb 52% cows will probably yield 400 lb (1701-1300) more calf on the same grass/hay/mineral than two 1642 lb cows.

Obviously the bull you use has something to do with calving ease then calf development also. This is where the CE and YW EPD's come in for a start. This is also why I am going to do some line breeding on my commercials with my best bull calf with known traits.

Here is the bull calf (on the left) whose dam is a great cow and sire is my T21 bull with great CE and YW. With this bull I am looking to increase the efficiency of all of my commercial cow families.

Jim at Dawn

(IMG_2841_Retained_home_grown_bull_calf_22_on weekly_training_treat_122710.jpg)

IMG_2841_Retained_home_grown_bull_calf_22_on weekly_training_treat_122710.jpg (39KB - 467 downloads)