Beef Industry Charts

NORTH DAKOTA'S CHAPS CALVING DISTRIBUTION TABLE-- This is a very powerful herd summary table that can tell you a lot about the performance of your beef cow herd. This particular herd calved 164 females with a herd average weaning weight of 567 pounds. Other views of this table in this series emphasize the results by 21-day calving intervals and by age of dams. This is the most powerful table that can be constructed from your herd performance data. I wish more ranchers would generate this table. This is a regular table generated by North Dakota's Cow Herd Performance Analysis System (CHAPS). For more information see www.chaps2000.com.

The Columns of this Calving Distribution Table shows the beef cow herd's performance by 21-day calving intervals. You can clearly see the impact of having more and more females calving in the 1st or 2nd 21-day interval has on average weaning weight. With multiple years of this table, you can see if the average calving interval for each age of females in greater than 365 days. Typically, the average calving interval of a herd is greater than 365 days. One key to increased pounds to sell at weaning is to move females' calving dates forward one 21-day calving interval. If a female calving in the 4th 21-day interval is moved up to the 3rd 21-day interval, this rancher can expect a 114 lb increase in lbs to sell. If a female calving in a 3rd 21-day calving interval is moved up one calving interval, this rancher can expect an additional 45 lbs to sell. If a 2nd interval female is moved up, this rancher can expect to have 68 more pounds to sell. These increased pounds to sell are very signficant in today' high calf prices!

North Dakota's CHAPS Calving Distribution Table Emphasizing Beef Cow Herd Sorted By Age Of Dam --. Note which age of females produced the heaviest calves. Generally, we find the females 5, 6, and 7 years of age produce the heaviest calves. Females 2, 3 and 4 years old tend to produce lighter weight calves. Females above 8 years of age tend to produce lighter calves. When prices are high, like now, ranch herds should have high numbers of 4, 5, 6 year old females so that they have the most pounds of calf to sell when prices are high. Most drought reduced herds, will be expanding with 2 and 3 year old females during the high prices of the next three years. Unfortunately, when calf prices are high, these repopulating drought-induced herds will have more low producing 2 and 3 year old females. This is not optimal for maximum profits but is a direct result of selected drought management strategies. The biggest economic costs of drought is not during the depopulation phase but is the missed profit opportunity experienced during the repopulation phase of the cattle cycle which typically corresponds to high calf price years. Clearly, when you have young cows, high producing aged cows, and older cows during the cattle cycle make a mid difference in the total profitability over a complete cattle cycle.