LIVESTOCK INVENTORY

I have taken a few days to visit the farm.  I usually have a through visit every quarter.  My first production quarter has come and gone by so quickly.  I am surely looking forward to this current quarter.

    Heifers looking good...

    Brahman mom and swiss calf plus a big weaned calf.  Nose ring works wonders.

    Pure breed Santa Gertrudis heifer.

  OKB677-12 still adjusting to the new environment.

Purpose of the visit was to conduct a livestock inventory. Specifically, a cattle inventory.  This should be part of every farmers management regimen.  I was not only able to count the animals physically, but I was also able to record their production histories.  This is very important.  Every cow should calf every year. The cows that are not productive will be marketed.

So why conduct a livestock inventory?

To identify any missing livestock.  This livestock can either be stolen, dead and never found or perhaps they could be roaming around in neighbors camps.  

To track the production histories of your cows.  Are the cows producing calves yearly.  If not, what could be the reason. Consider the bull to cow ratio.  They say for every 25 cows, 1 bull is needed.  This will increase the calving rate (ratio/percentage of calves born to the total cows in a production system).  My goal is to have more than an 80% calving rate.

To budget.  It is important to know how much one is spending on the operation for water, diesel, licks/supplements, vaccines.  One should also know their expecting income from marketing of livestock. And to do such, figures are needed to work with.

Following my hard copies, I type my data up into a long excel spreadsheet.

Xoxo