Posts by Justin Sexten :

On Target: Ranch environment and beef demand

Date: May 01 2017

| On Target

You’ve heard about it often enough: Match the cow to your environment. The articles and presentations say optimize the use of land, labor and forage resources; monitor success by measuring pounds of beef per acre. That sounds simple enough, but individuals vary their interpretations. Those who love to put more labor into it
may select for twinning and double their output. Of course, that’s far-fetched and rejected by any who have experienced
the tradeoffs of trying to get twins born unassisted to a dam that will rouse them both to nurse and then raise them both
to weaning. You certainly get rapid feedback as to success or failure, and that serves as part of your environment: the
challenge of raising twins is greater than the increased production per acre

On Target: Expanding cows or herds

Date: Apr 01 2017

| On Target

As the cow herd expands, market prices contract from their record highs and focus more attention on adding value. How to do that commonly comes down to adding what the market values in health and weaning practices from effective vaccinations to bunk breaking. This month, let’s consider ways to capitalize on the one trait common to all producers and market-price calculations: weight.

On Target: Earlier is better

Date: Mar 01 2017

| On Target

Everybody knows bull calves sell at least $5/cwt back of steers at weaning, and the discount grows for any still intact as
yearlings. That’s because virtually all of them are bound for the feedyard, where steers are the rule. The only question revolves
around when the bulls become steers.
Castration at weaning means one more stress at a stressful time and mandates a backgrounding or pre-conditioning
program to allow healing