Cow Stayability Brings Productivity and Profits to Cattle Herds

Cow Stayability Brings Productivity and Profits to Cattle Herds

If ranchers could predict which of their heifers will go on to be a productive cow when they are heifers, that would increase the overall herd fertility which then increases ranch profitability.
Colorado State University Animal Scientist, Dr. Mark Enns says stayability is a measure of productivity of cows — and CSU is working on research to identify stayability in younger females.
Enns: “Accurate stability EPD has always been a bit of issue. And we’ve done a lot of research lately looking at earlier measures as how they are related to stayability. So for instance a cow breeds as a heifer and has a successful pregnancy. What if she then has her calf and breeds as a two-year to have her second calf. We are finding that performance earlier on can be used to predict and calculate an EPD for stayability out to age six.”
Dr. Enns says unfortunately stayability isn’t as heritable as birth weights, weaning weights or yearling weights; however,
Enns: “We found in breeds where breeders submit data on their cows on an annual basis — so they are total herd reporting — but even though stayability heritable is usually about .10 to .15 considerably lower than the others we could still use that massive amount of data to get an indication of an animal’s merit for sustained fertility or stability produced calves.”

 

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