185 Strategies for managing open beef cows
Abstract Open beef cows account for between 15 and 30% of a spring-calving cow/calf operation’s annual revenue; however, most producers commonly sell open cows at weaning when prices are at a seasonal low. A three-year (2015–2018) study was conducted using open beef cows (n = 244) from a spring-calving herd in south-central Oklahoma. The objective of the study was to determine whether or not the net return of retaining, feeding, rebreeding, and marketing rebred cows was greater than the revenue from selling open cows at weaning. Each year at weaning, open cows were sorted into Thin or Moderate groups using an average threeman Body Condition Score (BCS). Thin cows (BCS < 5.5) received a ration of 11.4% CP and 63.9% TDN, while Moderate cows (5.5 ≤ BCS ≤ 6.0) received 10.4% CP and 55.2% TDN. Rations were formulated to transform the final condition of all cattle to a BCS of 6. Two rested bulls were assigned to each feeding group during the first 60 days of retention. After 90 days of retention all cattle were pregnancy tested via ultrasound. Enterprise budgeting techniques were used to calculate revenue, costs, and net return for each cow. Mixed effects (ANOVA) models using the Mixed Procedure in SAS were used to determine the fixed effects of feeding treatment, age, pregnancy status, and market type on ending weight and BCS and net return. Year and individual animal were tested and treated as random for each model analyzed. On average, net return was affected by feeding treatment (P = 0.0323), age (P < 0.0001), and pregnancy status (P < 0.0001). The results suggest that producers who have the ability to sort and feed young, thin cows in poorer condition and rebreed them using rested bulls can expect to earn $68/head more than selling them as open at weaning