Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
12/22/99
Contacts:
Dennis DeWitt, Iowa Beef Center, (712) 336-3488, x1ddewit@exnet.iastate.edu
Tracy S. Petersen, Iowa Beef Center, (515) 294-5672,
tracyp@iastate.edu
Producers Enroll In Beef Heifer Development Program To Improve Profitability
AMES, Iowa -- Twenty-two beef producers have enrolled 288 heifers in the 1999-2000 Northwest Iowa Heifer Development Program in hopes of maximizing their cattle's reproductive performance and profitability.
If the program's recent history holds true, most producers will be pleased.
Dennis DeWitt, Iowa State University Extension livestock field specialist and a member of the Iowa Beef Center at ISU, said the program's enrollment has continued to grow since it was created in 1997.
"We had 180 heifers the first year and 218 the second," he said. "I think our reputation and success rate has a lot to do with the growth."
According to DeWitt, the program was created to help smaller producers who want to expand their beef cow operations raise their own heifers more efficiently.
"It's our way of saying, 'Let us take care of this for you,'" DeWitt said.
Each fall producers enroll their beef heifers in the program, and deliver them to the Curt Jones Beef Heifer Development site, south of Spencer. The cattle are weighed, examined, re-vaccinated and sorted into nutritional groups according to how they will be handled and fed.
The cattle in this year's program range in weight from 334 pounds to 810 pounds, with an average weight of 592 pounds.
"We'll match the heifers' rations to their needed growth so they'll all reach the appropriate weight at the start of the breeding season on June 5," DeWitt said. "Right now their average weight is perfect, but there are some problems with the minimum and maximum weights."
While those at the extreme ends of the range may not reach an optimal weight by spring, they'll most likely fare better than they would on their home farms, DeWitt said. The heavy heifers need to gain only about one-half pound a day from now until June1, but will likely gain a pound a day. On the farm, however, they would probably gain up to 2 pounds per day, and be too fat, he said.
The heifers will be weighed and re-sorted in February, to monitor their growth rate. In April they will be weighed again and given a reproductive exam in preparation for the synchronization program in early May.
By that time 25 to 35 cattle will have been culled for a variety of reasons, including temperament, pregnancy, inadequate growth, poor health or a failed reproductive exam, DeWitt said.
New this year, producers who own heifer bulls can opt to have their heifers returned to their home farms after two heat cycles - probably the last week of July - for natural mating. The remaining heifers will remain in the program until Sept. 1, and will be artificially inseminated.
The producers receive a variety of benefits, including: reducing the number of groups of cattle to be managed over the winter at home, access to superior bulls with high-accuracy EPDs, a definite improvement in heifer temperament and an increased knowledge of the costs of replacement heifer development.
Each heifer incurs its own cost in the program, which totals about $350 per head, DeWitt said.
"The average feed cost is 75 to 80 cents per day," DeWitt said. "We challenge any private individual to have that reasonable of a feed cost for 200 days."
The Northwest Iowa Beef Heifer Development Program is overseen by a board of directors comprised of cattle producers and members of the agribusiness community. The day-to-day decisions are made by the on-site farm manager, the artificial insemination technician, the veterinarian and DeWitt.
DeWitt noted that it's not just the producers enrolled in the program who reap its benefits.
"Over the course of the summer, more than 200 people will stop to look at the heifers," he said. To view the heifers or learn more about the program, contact DeWitt at (712) 336-3488.
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