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Cow size critical to farm profitability

High maintenance, larger framed cows are costing producers $500 per head. Focusing on cow size can wipe 15% off feed costs and still increase outputs. It makes good sense to us.

It makes no economic sense whatsoever for commercial breeders to run large framed cows in Australian production systems. There is a distinct lack of commercial accountability in many seedstock herds with some breeders still breeding large framed Angus bulls using ‘fraudulent’ marketing messages to grab an easy sell. These larger framed cows eat over 500 kg dry matter of feed per year or $100 per cow at $200 per tonne of feed, or $150 per cow at $300 per tonne. This is over $500 per cow over a five year period. The extra salvage value for larger framed cows does not offset the increase in feed costs, higher risk profile, lower reproductive performance and later finishing, lower grading steers.

The recent tough years have highlighted the need to run moderate-sized, efficient cows, but some breeders are still pressing the case for larger framed cows to the detriment of their commercial clients. They are also passing on many other hidden costs to unsuspecting commercial breeders, most notably inferior reproductive performance. Larger framed later maturing cows not only cost more to feed, they are later puberty, produce less live calves and take longer to finish in grass or on the feedlot. As feedlots are reducing days on feed to counter negative margins the last thing they need are late maturing animals that don’t grade and take longer to finish. On top of the extra feed costs for larger cows, we can now breed moderate sized cows with superior growth rates, higher feed efficiency that use energy more efficiently for maintenance and improved pathways for partitioning fat deposition as intramuscular fat in preference for putting it on their backs as subcutaneous fat. Yes, you can have it all with some homework and a long term disciplined approach.