Fenceline weaning works Calving in January and February, Berg weans his calves in Sep-


tember with just a barbed wire fence between cows and calves. He expected the cows to jump it, but that hasn’t happened. And he sees less sickness now in the calves. “I’ve done it for 7 years, and it’s amazing,” he says. “About one-third


of the calves will bawl, and one-third will hang on the fenceline. By the second day, there are none on the fenceline. And one-third will never come to the fence; they have already been weaned by their mamas. “Cow and calf have to be able to hear and see each other and touch noses,” he says. “Then, it’s like, ‘yep, he’s there. It’s all okay.’”


Genetic tools pay off Berg uses available DNA testing for his purebred Angus cows to


select for low birth weights, high-grading carcass quality and wean- ing weights of at least 50 percent of the dam’s body weight. Cow size itself is not important to him, he says, “But it’s hard for


a big cow to wean 50 percent of her weight.” The size of his cows has moderated over time, now averaging 1,283 pounds. Berg ships his steer calves directly to a feedlot 60 days after weaning,


where his buyer feeds them for a branded beef program. He shipped his 2013 steers at 791 pounds. At slaughter, 30 percent of them were graded Prime. “People are paying for that now,” Berg says. Those same genetics translate into a replacement market for his heifers.


A work in progress It helps to realize that one never gets done with ranch improve-


ments, Berg says. It’s always a work in progress. “A ranch never sits still,” he says. “It’s always getting better or


worse. My goal is to make it better, because I’m going to own it for a while, and then someone else will. I want it to be better for them than it was for me.”


Bruce and Barbara Berg’s Rocosa Ridge Ranch near Meridian, Texas, was one of the seven regional winners of the Environmental Stewardship Award in 2014. (NCBA photo)


tscra.org April 2015 The Cattleman 89


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